Great Performances

It may have been the loneliest walk Chinese goalkeeper Gao Hong ever took. A few yards away, the U.S. Women's World Cup team was celebrating its victory over China in Saturday's final, gained when Gao was unable to stop any of the five penalty kicks taken by the U.S. in the tiebreaking procedure. Farther away, near midfield, Gao's teammates had gathered to commiserate over a loss in which they showed little of the flair or scoring prowess that previously had distinguished their game.

MOVIES 'Fantasia' Goes Imax: "Fantasia 2000"--Disney's long-awaited update of the popular 1940 film--will be released in 100 Imax theaters worldwide on Jan. 1 for an exclusive four-month run. That will follow orchestral premieres in five cities--beginning Dec.

Monday "FANatic" / 11 p.m. MTV Ever dream about being the next Larry King ... Oprah Winfrey ... Kurt Loder? You know, the inquisitive one who poses all the personal questions everyone says they would ask of famous people. Well, that time has arrived for the lucky individuals chosen to interview their favorite celebrities on this new weeknight show. The first week features Wesley Snipes, Van Halen, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Boyz II Men, Bruce Willis and Everclear. Tuesday All-Star Game / 5 p.m.

Frank Sinatra has been such a primal force in virtually every area of the entertainment world for so long, as well as a perpetual object of gossip column scrutiny, that his importance as a musical genius is sometimes overlooked. "Frank Sinatra: The Very Good Years" on PBS' "Great Performances" doesn't quite provide a complete picture of the length and breadth of his extraordinary abilities--it would take a series of specials to do that.

"Loosely Mozart: The New Innovators of Classical Music" sounds like the name of an undergraduate course aimed at attracting young listeners away from pop. In fact, it's the title of a PBS "Great Performances" special featuring singer-conductor Bobby McFerrin, pianists Chick Corea and Marcus Roberts, and a string trio consisting of Yo-Yo Ma, Mark O'Connor and Edgar Meyer. And it's a title obviously designed to counter New York City's long-running "Mostly Mozart" concert series.

Mikhail Pletnev is one of those conductors who, when the violins are sawing furiously, the woodwinds whirring dizzily and the brass blazing away, likes to stand there rapt and still, the calm at the center of a howling storm, basking in the fury. In a quiet, cuter moment, he will turn to the violins, give a little smirk, raise an eyebrow, bob his head and flip his wrist--a mime to the music. He's not exactly a showboater (he's too controlled for that), but he's a bit of a ham.

There's a surprise at the Theatre District's funky barn-style space, adjacent to the Anti-Mall here. While the neighboring cluster of shops for Gen-Xers and Pre-Xers preens with studied post-industrial style (the Anti-Mall is a kind of "Waterworld" to shop in), the theater's current show is out of another world entirely. William Inge's "Bus Stop" is back, and it's good to hear it again. Especially when it's this well done, as if the 40-year-old play were new. Nobody writes like Inge anymore.

Theater lovers may sometimes look down their noses at television, but the first installment of "Act One '95," the Met Theatre series funded by several TV production companies, should make that stage snobbery fade like so many summer reruns. It's true that this one-act festival, now in its second year, has been made with more in mind than just the thrill of hearing live applause. The sponsors--led by Showtime Networks Inc.

At 31, Baz Luhrmann is no Wunderkind operatic stage director, but he's certainly younger than many of his international colleagues. And, some would say, more imaginative. The Australian director's updated "La Boheme"--created for the Sydney-based Australian Opera in 1990 and shown on PBS' "Great Performances" series Wednesday--was his first operatic assignment. It predated his internationally acclaimed film, the award-winning "Strictly Ballroom," by two years.

Foshay Junior High School office assistant Sheila Ferguson saw talent in her students. She also saw that most didn't have money for singing or dancing lessons, or an outlet for their abilities. So she created a show. "I saw a lot of kids who were talented, but they didn't have anyone helping them or giving them direction," Ferguson says. "Now, we're using their talents to keep them in school, to tell them to stay away from gangs and drugs."