Showtime, 8:00 p.m. ET
This documentary on Luciano Pavarotti looks at the life and career of the famously talented and popular, and often unreliable and controversial, opera tenor, using family videos as well as concert performance clips and newsreels. It’s directed by Ron Howard, who in 2016 crafted a fine documentary about another international phenomenon of a musical act: The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years. Roll over, Beethoven, and tell Tchaikovsky the news…
TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET
It’s the last Monday of December, which means it’s the last time, at least this year, for a smartly archived compare-and-contrast double feature. Tonight, as a pre-New Year’s Eve treat, we’re served two heaping helpings of A Star Is Born. Not Streisand and Gaga – but earlier incarnations, played by Gaynor and Garland. The evening starts at 8 p.m. ET with 1937’s A Star Is Born, starring Janet Gaynor and Fredric March (pictured). That’s followed by the famous 1954 version, starring Judy Garland and James Mason. One of the writers getting co-screenplay credit on the earlier version, by the way, is Dorothy Parker. Interesting bit of trivia to throw into the conversation, next time you’re sitting around your personal Algonquin Round Table…