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.

Duration: 1 hour 26 minutes and 46 seconds

Episode Number: 4817

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Mon, Jul 21 12:00 P.M. Audra McDonald at the London Palladium     NH Explore (11.2)
Mon, Jul 21 1:30 P.M. The Magic of Nureyev     NH Explore (11.2)
Mon, Jul 28 12:00 P.M. New York City Ballet In Madrid     NH Explore (11.2)
Mon, Jul 28 1:30 P.M. Now Hear This Piazzolla's History with Tango     NH Explore (11.2)
Mon, Jul 28 2:30 P.M. The LA Phil Celebrates Frank Gehry     NH Explore (11.2)
Mon, Aug 4 11:00 A.M. Now Hear This: Chopin's Polish Heart     NH Explore (11.2)
Mon, Aug 18 11:00 A.M. Now Hear This: Boccherini: Night Music     NH Explore (11.2)
Mon, Aug 25 11:00 A.M. Now Hear This: Rachmaninoff Reborn     NH Explore (11.2)
Mon, Aug 25 12:00 P.M. Now Hear This: Barrios: Chopin of the Guitar     NH Explore (11.2)
Fri, Aug 29 9:00 P.M. Vienna Philharmonic Summer Night Concert 2025     NHPBS (11.1)
Sat, Aug 30 1:00 A.M. Vienna Philharmonic Summer Night Concert 2025     NHPBS (11.1)


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