Bravo! is pleased to announce its fall 2005 schedule preview. From a new series produced in association with Bravo! that chronicles the nationwide search for opera’s next big star, to the multiple award-winning Jerry Springer – The Opera, to a fascinating documentary that unleashes the secrets of some of da Vinci’s greatest works, to an investigative film about the mysterious death of a Group of Seven member – Bravo!’s fall season has something for every artistic taste.
“I am delighted that Bravo! will have its own Opera Idol,” said Ismé Bennie, Director of Programming and Acquisitions for Bravo!. “We continue to have the best new Canadian arts programming starting in the fall and continuing non-stop right through the year.”
APPOINTMENT WITH BRAVO!:
Bravo! is a rest stop in the television universe where viewers make a regular APPOINTMENT WITH THE ARTS – and keep it. Each night on Bravo! a different arts genre is explored, featuring an eclectic mix of programs that are entertaining and inspiring: dance, music, drama, literature, cinema, great performers and visual arts. Whether it’s a classic opera, or Hall & Oates performing on the Gemini award-winning Live at the Rehearsal Hall series, or a cutting-edge HBO film, Bravo! gives viewers an opportunity for enriching and thought-provoking experiences.
Monday – APPOINTMENT WITH DANCE showcases the art form, from Irish dancing to modern works. Viewers can watch a classic ballet, or take in a program featuring their favourite dance stars both past and present.
GHOST TOWN
World Television Premiere
Produced in association with Bravo! and Cine Qua Non Media, this dance special choreographed by Montréal contemporary Jig pioneer Lük Fleury tells the story of a 20th- century mining town by mixing original dance pieces, interviews and archival footage.
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Tuesday – APPOINTMENT WITH MUSIC showcases the musical styles of classic big band swingers to contemporary pop musicians. Take a front row seat at great concerts, explore the life of your favourite artist in a biographical film or documentary or watch your favourite movie musical.
TALKIN’ BLUES
World Television Premieres
Produced in association with Bravo! and Canadian independent filmmaker and blues enthusiast Mako Funasaka, Talkin’ Blues, now in its third season, explores the eccentric and exclusive world of the blues, and examines the current blues scene as experienced by the musicians most passionate about the genre. Told in 13-parts, this series features interviews, archival performance footage and music videos.
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Wednesday – APPOINTMENT WITH DRAMA: Bravo! takes you behind the curtain. Canadian films, documentaries and theatre programs comprise the great selection that is APPOINTMENT WITH DRAMA.
LUNATIC VAN BEETHOVEN
World Television Premieres
Filmed before an audience at the 2004 Winnipeg Fringe Festival, this hour-long musical bio-comedy stars Montréal monologist Keir Cutler as the great composer himself, debunking Beethoven myths and playfully reacting to seeing his likeness on a bobble-head doll, and hearing his Ninth Symphony coming from cellphones and alarm clocks.
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Thursday – APPOINTMENT WITH LITERATURE: From the writers, editors, publishers and those who market and review the final product, APPOINTMENT WITH LITERATURE explores the written word. Tune in also to FilmLit – movies based on great works of literature – without the strain of turning all those pages.
UNLOCKING DA VINCI’S CODE
Canadian Television Premiere
Inspired by ideas from Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code,this one-hour documentary reveals some of the fascinating mysteries of our time and the greatest secrets of our past as told by hidden riddles and clues within Leonardo da Vinci’s greatest works. The controversial links between Jesus Christ, Mary Magdalene and da Vinci are exposed, and the secret society that included da Vinci, Isaac Newton, Botticelli and Victor Hugo is explored.
ANGELS AND DEMONS: SECRETS REVEALED
Canadian Television Premiere
This one-hour documentary inspired by Dan Brown’s novel tells the story of an ancient secret brotherhood, a devastating weapon of destruction and a shocking target – the Vatican – all in the name of world domination. Posed throughout the program are startling questions about whether or not the Illuminati have the power to take over the world, if new weapons of mass destruction are aimed at more locations and if a takeover is already underway.
MURDER 19C: DETECTIVE MURDOCH MYSTERIES –
UNDER THE DRAGON’S TAIL
Canadian Television Premiere
Under the Dragon’s Tail , which is produced in association with Bravo!, is the third instalment of films based on Maureen Jennings’s mystery novels set at the turn of the 20th-century in Victorian Toronto, when forensic science was in its infancy. Detective William Murdoch (Peter Outerbridge) investigates the murder of a back-street abortionist, Dolly Shaw. The list of suspects is long since Dolly kept a log of her clients, all of whom have their own personal reasons to fear the divulgence of their indiscretions. Dolly’s murder is no surprise, but when a young boy, a ward of Dolly’s, is found dead a week later, Murdoch starts to wonder if he’s hunting for one murderer or two.
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Friday – APPOINTMENT WITH CINEMA: More than just movies, APPOINTMENT WITH CINEMA is programming for both the movie buff and novice.
THE HBO ORIGINAL MOVIE
Every Friday Night
Bravo! dedicates every Friday night to THE HBO ORIGINAL MOVIE. The catalogue encompasses over 100 existing titles, and boasts the biggest talents and most thought-provoking topics ever to hit the small screen.
SCANNING THE MOVIES
World Television Premieres
Unlike other movie shows, the award-winning Scanning the Movies does not critique and review movies. Instead, host John Pungente, SJ, teaches his audience to analyze and understand popular new releases for themselves. Hailed by The Globe and Mail as “one of the world’s leading proponents of media literacy,” Pungente, a Jesuit priest, brings a fresh, entertaining and thought-provoking view to the world of Hollywood pop culture. Through the use of exclusive interviews with the stars, writers and directors, as well as clips, Pungente deconstructs films and examines their values. Scanning The Movies is a component of CHUM’s media education initiative; besides airing on Bravo!, it is telecast as part of Cable In The Classroom.
This fall, Scanning the Movies will profile the controversial film, Water, by Indian-Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta. Not yet released, this third film in a trilogy of films about the plight of widows in India has already been plagued with protests and threats of violence from political and religious parties. Scanning the Movies will explore this film in two special episodes.
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Saturday – APPOINTMENT WITH GREAT PERFORMERS: A combination of opera, smart comedies and concerts, APPOINTMENT WITH GREAT PERFORMERS brings a box-seat perspective right into your home. Spend some quality time with Pavarotti or enjoy an intimate performance in Bravo!’s state-of-the-art Rehearsal Hall.
BATHROOM DIVAS: SO YOU WANT TO BE… AN OPERA STAR!
World Television Premieres
Neophyte opera singers from across the country and from all walks of life get a chance to become the ultimate “bathroom diva” in this all-new Canadian six-part, one-hour series produced in association with Bravo!. After a cross-country audition and selection process, six candidates are chosen to enter an intensive training phase from which only one will make the final cut and have the opportunity to perform live on-stage.
JERRY SPRINGER – THE OPERA
North American Television Premiere
Based on the television phenomenon The Jerry Springer Show, this multiple award-winning opera made theatre history by earning an unprecedented four awards including Best Musical at The Oliver Awards, The Critics’s Circle Theatre Awards, The Evening Standard Theatre Awards and the What’s On Stage Awards. Created by Stewart Lee and Richard Thomas and starring David Soul (Starsky & Hutch), Jerry Springer – The Opera opened to international critical acclaim and has been seen by more than 500,000 theatre-goers, and set a record for having more than 2.4 million viewers when it aired BBC Two.
VIRTUOSO ROMANTIC (Working title subject to change)
World Television Premiere
A one-hour documentary, produced in association with Bravo!, about Canadian solo pianist Marc-André Hamelin – the only classical artist ever to perform at the Grammys. At a time when classical music is in crisis because of declining record sales and audiences throughout the Western world, Hamelin continues to challenge this devastating trend and, accompanied by the Hyperion Record Company in London, embrace turn-of-the-century works and those from the “Golden Age of Pianism.”
DJANGOMANIA!
North American Television Premiere
From Canadian writer/director Jamie Kastner comes a comedic one-hour documentary, produced in association with Bravo!, about the craze that is sweeping the world – Djangomania!. From Tokyo to Oslo, legions of intensely obsessed fans are rediscovering the music of Django Reinhardt, the Belgian-born, two-fingered Gypsy jazz guitar legend, more than 50 years after his death. Features fans at the Django Reinhardt festival in France, two feuding Django-style bands from Japan, archival footage and live performances.
OPERA EASY
World Television Premieres
Hosted by Canadian classical singer Natalie Choquette, the second season of this six-part, half-hour series, produced in association with Bravo!, explores six essential operas through lively and interesting visuals and music.
PERSÉE
Bravo! Television Premiere
This two-hour Opera Atelier performance of a 300 year-old French Baroque musical composition, Persée, by Jean-Baptiste Lully written for Louis XIV was conducted by Hervé Niquet and features the company’s principal singers.
SUTHERLAND / PAVAROTTI / BONYNGE GALA CONCERT
Bravo! Television Premiere
This three-hour concert performance conducted by Richard Bonynge features the Elizabethan Sydney Orchestra, and arias and duets from operas that have catapulted the careers of Dame Joan Sutherland and Luciano Pavarotti, which include La Traviata, Lucia di Lammermoor, Pagliacci and Tosca.
5 DAYS IN SEPTEMBER: THE REBIRTH OF AN ORCHESTRA
World Television Premiere
A two-hour documentary, produced in association with Bravo!, revealing the challenges and achievements of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra as it launches its 2004 season and the start of Maestro Peter Oundjian’s tenure as TSO music director. The documentary provides a behind-the-scenes look at the TSO and exposes its inner workings. Featured are three of classical music’s top artists, Renée Fleming, Emmanuel Ax and Yo-Yo Ma, who rehearse and perform with the orchestra.
JULIO IGLESIAS: LIVE IN JERUSALEM
Canadian Television Premiere
In this one-hour concert, Julio Iglesias performs under the stars at the legendary Sultans Pool Amphitheater for 20,000 fans for the first and only time in the Holy City. Accompanied by an orchestra, Iglesias sings soulful renditions of 12 love songs including El Amor, Pobre Diablo, Hey and Guantanamera. Viewers also come along for Iglesias’s personal tour of the ancient city and some of the holiest sites in the world.
LES PALADINS
Canadian Television Premiere
Conducted by William Christie, Les Arts Florissants Orchestra and Choir perform Jean-Paul Rameau’s opera based loosely on La Fontaine’s fable L’Arisote. Filmmaker José Montalvo combines brilliant music with both heavy and light subject matter in this comedic musical.
BOHÈME
Canadian Television Premiere
Based on Music Theater London’s stage production of the opera La Bohème about boys and girls behaving badly in 19th-century Paris, this updated version was shot entirely on film in south-east London and is set in present day. Written and directed by Tony Britten.
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Sunday – APPOINTMENT WITH VISUAL ARTS: Bravo! presents a visual arts documentary every Sunday at 8pm ET. It’s a personal tour through the lives of famous artists. Make an APPOINTMENT WITH VISUAL ARTS.
DARK PINES: A DOCUMENTARY INVESTIGATION INTO THE DEATH OF TOM THOMSON
World Television Premiere
A one-hour docudrama, produced in association with Bravo!, about the Group of Seven member’s life, works and mysterious death at age 39 in 1917. Filmed in Northern Ontario and in Thomson’s shack on the grounds of the McMichael Gallery in Kleinberg, startling revelations about the archetypical Canadian’s untimely death come to the surface through dramatic reenactments. Directed by David Vaisbord (Drawing Out the Demons: A Film About the Artist, Attila Richard Lukacs).
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Original, groundbreaking, critically acclaimed television. The true definition of “TV as good as it gets.”
INSIDE THE ACTORS STUDIO
Every Sunday @ 5pm ET
Hosted by James Lipton and held at New York’s legendary Actors Studio, the Emmy Award-nominated series offers intimate discussions with some of Hollywood’s finest. Bravo!, the exclusive Canadian broadcaster of the series, will be premiering all new episodes in the fall.
SEX AND THE CITY
Every Friday @ midnight ET
Encore presentation every Saturday @ 11pm ET
Twosomes every Monday at midnight ET
Our affair hasn’t ended with this groundbreaking series. Bravo! will continue to air Sex and the City as it should be seen – uncut and uncensored. Relive the social and sexual exploits of Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte as they search for love in the Big Apple.
LAW AND ORDER
Monday through Friday @ 1pm ET, 11pm ET & 5am ET
Filmed entirely on location in New York City, this long-running series looks at crime and justice from a dual perspective: from the detectives that investigate the crime, to the district attorneys that prosecute the offenders.
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LIVE AT THE REHEARSAL HALL
Bravo!’s Gemini award-winning concert series Live at the Rehearsal Hall, has featured such diverse musical artists as Yo-Yo Ma, Ben Heppner, Philip Glass, Bob Geldof, Daniel Lanois, Joe Jackson, Rufus Wainwright, Randy Bachman, Sarah Harmer, Hall & Oates and Diana Krall. Set in the state-of-the-art Bravo! Rehearsal Hall, the Live at the Rehearsal Hall series will continue to showcase critically acclaimed musicians from Canada and around the world.
ARTS & MINDS
Saturdays @ 6pm ET / Sundays @ 7pm ET
Arts & Minds, a Bravo! original production, is a weekly arts magazine that features profiles of Canadian and international artists and major events concerning architecture, design, dance, film, literature, music, opera, theatre and the visual arts. Through Arts & Minds, the work of Canadian artists is now seen around the world.
BRAVO! NEWS
You can count on Bravo!News to report on the events and opinions that shape the arts world – the artists, the triumphs, the scandals. Capturing arts news as it happens from Canada and around the world. Daily on Bravo! and at www.bravo.ca.
BRAVO! VIDEOS COUNTDOWN
Monday – Friday @ 6pm ET
A nightly half-hour of innovative videos featuring opera, dance, symphonic, chamber, video, jazz, world beat and new age music.
BRAVO!FACT
Over the years, Bravo! has dedicated almost $10 million to Bravo!FACT (Foundation to Assist Canadian Talent) for the production of short art films and videos. In addition to supplying grants, the foundation also provides exposure for the shorts, and ultimately, for the artists and filmmakers. Bravo!FACT videos can be seen daily on Bravo!Videos and throughout the broadcast day during Bravo!Flow. And every Wednesday night, Bravo!FACT Presents offers an absorbing half-hour of short films funded by Bravo!FACT.