Episode list

Pierre Boulez is interviewed by Michael Tilson Thomas in a two part presentation. Scenes of Boulez rehearsing and conducting a performance of the overture to "L'incontro Improvviso" by Joseph Haydn.

Michael Tilson Thomas talks with Pierre Boulez, who conducts a chamber orchestra in Stravinsky's "Concertino".

Judith Blegen, an American soprano with the Metropolitan Opera, is profiled.

The daughter of the photographer Diane Arbus, explains her late mother's work with many of her photographs displayed.

Excerpts from Tom Johnson's "The Four Note Opera" are performed in recital style.

The music, life, composing and playing styles of Scott Joplin, illustrated with performance and graphics. With Eubie Blake, composer-pianist; Joshua Rifkin, composer-pianist; Harold Cromer, dancer. Many performance selections including "Maple Leaf Rag", "The Entertainer" and "Pineapple Rag". Photos of the start of the century, the period in which Joplin lived, St. Louis during the 1904 Worlds Fair, Joplin's musical peers, Ragtime bands, and composers. Rifkin demonstrates how ragtime should and should not be played.

The Darpana Dance Company performs a classical Kathakali piece illustrating modern and traditional themes and techniques. Faubion Bowers provides commentary and interviews Mrinalini Sarabhai, an Indian dancer, choreographer and instructor who is the founder and director of the Darpana Academy of Performing Arts.

Excerpts from "Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant Jesus" by Olivier MessIaen are performed by pianist Michel Beroff, conducted by Pierre Boulez.

The brilliant Scottish psychoanalyst R.D. Laing and avantgarde theater director Joseph Chaikin, head of an experimental group in New York, discuss personal freedom.

Classic Balinese dances are performed by six dancers and twelve musicians. Commentary and interview are by Asian dance authority Faubion Bowers.

Sivuca, a Brazilian composer, singer and player of the piano, guitar and harmonica, talks about his career as a self-taught musician.

First of 2-parts: a profile of Leni Riefenstahl who earned renown as a documentarian and controversy as a one time propagandist for the Nazis. She reflects on the making of "Triumph of Will" (1934), her record of a massive rally for Hitler at Nuremberg in the first episode.

A profile of Sarah Caldwell, director of The Opera Company of Boston, includes a behind the scenes study of the preparation of a production of Donizeltti's "Daughter of the Regiment."

Artist, illustrator and film animator George Dunning Explains his work and Ideas in this documentary shot In England.