Land of Gold
great performances

Land of Gold explores the making of John Adams and Peter Sellars' San Francisco Opera premiere of their latest collaboration, Girls of the Golden West, dramatizing the turbulent history of the California Gold Rush. With the new opera's title referencing Giacomo Puccini's 1910 romantic favorite The Girl of the Golden West, Adams and Sellars' work tells a harsher and more accurate story through the letters of writer Louise Clappe, who lived in a miners' settlement for a year and a half. Land of Gold takes viewers into parallel universes 170 years apart with the historical characters of 1851 on a cultural collision course, and then behind the scenes at San Francisco Opera with the cast and creatives excavating that same history within today's cultural turmoil. Amid the backstage hubbub, composer Adams, singers Julia Bullock, Paul Appleby, J'Nai Bridges, and director Sellars wrestle their bittersweet opera onto the stage. Marking filmmaker Jon Else's third documentary with Adams, Land of Gold lays bare the flamboyant but brutal roots of modern America.

Episode Duration: 1 hour 26 minutes and 46 seconds

Episode Number: 4817

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GREAT PERFORMANCES, the longest-running performing arts anthology on television, continues to feature the best in the performing arts.


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Future Broadcast times for "Great Performances": (show all)

Fri, Nov 15 9:00 P.M. Rodgers & Hammerstein's 80th Anniversary: My Favorite Things     NHPBS (11.1)
Sat, Nov 16 1:00 A.M. Rodgers & Hammerstein's 80th Anniversary: My Favorite Things     NHPBS (11.1)
Sun, Nov 17 3:00 P.M. Rodgers & Hammerstein's 80th Anniversary: My Favorite Things     NHPBS (11.1)
Mon, Nov 18 1:00 P.M. Rodgers & Hammerstein's 80th Anniversary: My Favorite Things     NH Explore (11.2)
Fri, Nov 22 9:00 P.M. Patsy Cline: Walkin' After Midnight     NHPBS (11.1)
Sat, Nov 23 1:00 A.M. Patsy Cline: Walkin' After Midnight     NHPBS (11.1)
Mon, Nov 25 3:04 A.M. Patsy Cline: Walkin' After Midnight     NHPBS (11.1)
Mon, Nov 25 12:00 P.M. Patsy Cline: Walkin' After Midnight     NH Explore (11.2)
Mon, Nov 25 2:00 P.M. George Jones: Still Playin' Possum     NH Explore (11.2)
Tue, Nov 26 3:00 P.M. Patsy Cline: Walkin' After Midnight     NHPBS (11.1)
Fri, Nov 29 9:00 P.M. Henry Mancini 100 at the Hollywood Bowl     NHPBS (11.1)
Sat, Nov 30 2:00 A.M. Henry Mancini 100 at the Hollywood Bowl     NHPBS (11.1)
Mon, Dec 2 12:00 P.M. Henry Mancini 100 at the Hollywood Bowl     NH Explore (11.2)
Mon, Dec 23 12:00 P.M. Josh Groban's Great Big Radio City Show     NH Explore (11.2)
Mon, Dec 23 1:30 P.M. Purlie Victorious     NH Explore (11.2)


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