On the web: www.americanpublicmedia.com

By Rick Nelson, Star Tribune

Last update: March 7, 2008 - 4:23 PM

http://americanpublicmedia.publicradio.org

Those looking for a primer to Friday night's performance of "Giselle" by the State Ballet of Georgia at Northrop Auditorium should click no further than the Web pages of "The MTT Files," the public-radio series starring conductor Michael Tilson Thomas and produced by Minnesotan Tom Voegeli.

Stream the "Freud and the Ballet" episode and you'll hear the erudite Tilson Thomas place the ballet's complicated psychological landscape into a fascinating historical context -- hence, the "Freud" of the title -- peppered by lush musical interludes by the London Symphony Orchestra. When MTT asks legendary "Giselle" interpreter Natalia Makarova how she coped with the role's highly confessional demands, she replies, with a heavy accent, "That's called, 'To be an artist.'"

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