Andrea Simon

In the summer of 1955, nine-year-old Amanda Gerber tearfully leaves her best friend, Francine, and their adventurous life on her block in Brooklyn Flatbush. She joins her cantankerous family on the long, hot drive to her grandmother's home in the Catskill Mountains among the city's Jews who flock to countless hotels and bungalow colonies in the heyday of the Borscht Belt. In the idyllic mountains, Amanda becomes ensconced in the tumult of her extended...

This television special program gives viewers a look at Sellars' controversial productions of Mozart's Don Giovanni, Marriage of Figaro and Così Fan Tutte. Sellars has stunned the music world with his unconventional approach to these musical masterpieces by setting them in the contemporary U.S.: the South Bronx, Trump Tower and a Long Island diner, respectively. Featured are extended excerpts from the operas, as well as interviews with Sellars and...