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PepsiCo's Final Season Offers Innovative Productions of Mozart Operas.

Classical Music Critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews the final three performances of the PepsiCo Summerfare Arts Festival at Purchase, New York. For ten years, the Pepsi-Cola company has underwritten an annual international arts festival that will best be remembered for its ambitious presentations of operas by Mozart and Handel that were directed by Peter Sellars. In this segment, Lloyd reviews performances of Mozart's three great Italian operas, "The Marriage of Figaro," "Don Giovanni" and "Cosi fan tutte."

06:59
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Other segments from the episode on August 2, 1989

Fresh Air with Terry Gross, August 2, 1989: Interview with Joe Kane; Review of performances at the PepsiCo Summerfare Festival; Interview with Marta Renzi; Commentary on moving.
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22:52

Joe Kane Discusses "Running the Amazon."

Writer Joe Kane. In 1985, Kane, who had been a freelance writer living in San Francisco, was asked to follow the first attempt to navigate the entire Amazon River, starting in the Andes of Peru and ending in the Atlantic Ocean. Kane was going to follow the group at intervals, publicizing their progress for the American and European press.

Interview
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11:18

Marta Renzi Believes in Narrative Dance.

Dancer and choreographer Marta Renzi. Typical of her work is "Mountainview," a half-hour dance narrative that premieres this Thursday, August 3 on the PBS program "Alive From Off Center." "Mountainview" is set at the bar of rundown resort run by three generations of the same family. The families loves and jealousies are played out to the sounds of the jukebox, which features the music of Bruce Springsteen, Tammy Wynette and Aretha Franklin. RENZI choreographed the dances and other movements and collaborated with filmmaker John Sayles on the camera work.

Interview
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03:51

On the Ordeal of Moving.

Commentator Maureen Corrigan talks about the travails of moving. Maureen is a recent victim, having moved from Philadelphia to Washington.

Commentary

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06:38

An Italian Opera in Spanish Harlem

Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz talks to Fresh Air's Terry Gross about an updated version of Mozart's Figaro. The opera, directed by Peter Sellars, is set in New York City -- but is still sung in Italian.

Interview
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06:55

Updating Don Giovanni

Director Peter Sellars helmed a modernized production of Mozart's iconic opera at this year's Pepsico Summerfare. Classical music critic Lloyd Schwarz saw the performance in Purchase, NY. He says not all of the updates worked, but the individual performances reached the audience "on a profoundly emotional level."

Review
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52:30

Yo-Yo Ma on ‘touching infinity’ through his nearly 300-year-old cello, Petunia

Yo-Yo Ma, along with his cello, which he'll be playing. He's the most famous contemporary cellist and perhaps the most revered in the U.S. His best-known recordings are of the Bach Solo Cello Suites, which he's recorded three times - in 1983, 1997 and 2018. He's performed with orchestras around the world, but lots of people who pay no attention to classical music know Yo-Yo Ma because he's performed in so many different settings.

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