double yellow has not one but two big shows playing over the August Bank Holiday weekend – the premiere of the documentary Dame Kiri Te Kanawa on Bernstein on Sky Arts in which one of the world’s greatest opera superstars celebrates the life of Leonard Bernstein, and a rerun on ITV of Larry Grayson: Shut That Door! just four months after its debut airing.
Leonard Bernstein was one of the giants of American music, and in 1984 Dame Kiri Te Kanawa was invited to star in the cast recording of ‘West Side Story’, conducted for the first time by Bernstein three decades after he wrote it. To mark the centenary of Bernstein’s birth, Dame Kiri now looks back on her experience of working with this legendary figure, and talks to others who knew and worked with him including conductor Marin Alsop, biographer Humphrey Burton and Bernstein’s daughter Jamie. The programme was produced with the full co-operation of the Bernstein Foundation and features rare footage of the maestro at work during his long and illustrious career.
