CRITIC AT LARGE
   PBS/TV PREVIEW
   By Byron Belt.

   [Is corporate sponsorship of public television out of control? Great
   Performances' August pledge break special generates more questions
   than answers.  However invaluable Public Television remains, the
   increasing "credits" that are really full-fledged commercials are
   causing uneasy stirrings among viewers.]

   The distinguished Great Performance series comes uncomfortably
   suspect with a high percentage of its productions backed by video
   and CD issues of Sony Classics and RCA Victor.  Such tie-ins appear
   increasingly to be the dominant factor in selecting and producing
   many of the hours serious viewers have come to treasure.

   Great Performances' next Public Television release is scheduled for
   showing nationally during the traditional August Pledge Periods,
   described by a former colleague as "PBS Begathons."

   On Wednesday, August 6 at 8 p.m.  ET, Great Performances has scheduled
   "Three Mo' Tenors," a Black Broadway and Opera variation on the
   popular "Three Tenors - Pavarotti, Domingo and Carreras" shows that
   began excitingly and soon turned into money cows and tedium.

   The regular corporate sponsor remains Ernst & Young, and "Viewers
   like you," but the real sponsor of the newest tenor show is RCA
   Victor, who just happens to be releasing a CD featuring Victor Trent
   Cook, Rodrick Dixon and Thomas Young, the title trio.

   Since the recorded program is exactly the same as the PBS production,
   the latter is clearly the beneficiary of RCA's commercial investment,
   which is nowhere listed among the credits sent to the press.

   In a monumental example of hype over-kill, this writer received five
   review copies of the CD from five different public relations people.

   I didn't enjoy much of the telecast, and less of the CD. It is,
   however, only fair to note that a large New York audience received
   every entrance and performance by the three stars with rapturous
   shouting, standing ovations, and clapped and sang along with any
   number with a hint of rhythm - most of the program, that is.

   Last March,  Great Performances offered a delightful "My Favorite
   Broadway" telecast, with the Three Mo' (I don't understand the use
   of that denigrating word, either) Tenors in a short and entertaining
   segment that lead to this week's 101-minute feature.

   The music ranges from Verdi, Donizetti and Puccini to Ellington and
   much gospel-inspired performances of traditional spirituals.

   Two of the tenors, Thomas Young and Richard Dixon, posess operatic
   voices - never used with sublety, but with astonishing assurance and
   accuracy - and a Broadway belter, Victor Trent Cook, whose Cab Calloway
   "Minnie the Moocher" is especially entertaining.

   Dixon tosses off the myriad high C's of a Donizetti aria from "The
   Daughter of the Regiment," with enviable ease, but is much more
   effective in a simple, sincere performance of "Make them Hear You,"
   from the Ahrens & Flaherty musical "Ragtime."

   Young grabbed the inevitible "Nessun Dorma," from Puccini's "Turandot,"
   sings it well, and is rewarded with the audience's almost indifferent
   applause.

   This "something for everyone" program includes two breaks for funding
   appeals, and it will be interesting to see if the public around the
   country is as enthusiastic as those in Manhattan.

   Great Performances follows the three tenors with four women in the
   television premiere of Mark Adamo's surprising hit, the Houston Grand
   Opera's wildly acclaimed "Little Women."  The first of many HGO world
   premieres to be repeated, and slated for numerous opera companies
   during the next two years, the opera will be shown nationally on PBS
   when pledge season has concluded, on August 29.

   There seems to be no commercial involvement in the new opera offering,
   a
   refreshing change from recent PBS specials.

Janos Gereben/SF
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