Distant Harmony

Director: DeWitt Sage

Institute History

  • 1988 Sundance Film Festival

Description

Spectacularly mounted and beautifully shot, Distant Harmony follows the reception of the great Italian tenor, Luciano Pavarotti, in China, from his hesitant arrival at the Beijing airport to a hastily organized concert in the Great Hall of People for some 10,000 leaders of the Chinese Communist Party.

Traveling with the Genoa Opera Company, award-winning filmmaker DeWitt Sage, manages to capture Pavarotti’s initial nervousness over the Chinese who are not familiar with his repertoire. But, when he breaks into the famous duet from La Boheme, the audience bursts into spontaneous cheers. At that moment, Distant Harmony achieves its purpose far beyond a portrait of Pavarotti to become a metaphor for the mixing of people and voices, east and west.

— Tony Safford

Screening Details

Credits

As you use our Online Archives, please understand that the information presented from Festivals, Labs, and other activities is taken directly from official publications from each year. While this information is limited and doesn't necessarily represent the full list of participants (e.g. actors and crew), it is the list given to us by the main film/play/project contact at the time, based on the space restrictions of our publications. Each entry in the Online Archives is meant as a historical record of a particular film, play, or project at the time of its involvement with Sundance Institute. For this reason, we can only amend an entry if a name is misspelled, or if the entry does not correctly reflect the original publication. If you have questions or comments, please email [email protected]