By Janelle Gelfand
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The sizzling mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves will help light up Music Hall when Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops tape their seventh show for national broadcast on PBS in February.

The Pops show, "A Patriotic Broadway," to be performed on Feb. 21-23 in Music Hall, will be telecast sometime next year, the orchestra announced today. Phillip Byrd, who has produced PBS shows for the Pops, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati May Festival, is the program's director and producer.

Ms. Graves will be joined by vocalists and former Dukes of Hazzard TV stars Tom Wopat and John Schneider in patriotic tunes from Broadway shows. The three headliners replace previously announced soloists Cynthia Watters, David Fischer and Daniel Narducci, who will be rescheduled for a later date.

Others performing in the Pops extravaganza will include the United States Army Field Band Soldiers' Chorus, the United States Army Herald Trumpets, the May Festival Chorus, and the Musical Theatre Department of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

"Our country has more exciting patriotic songs than any other country on the globe," Mr. Kunzel says. "God bless America."

The program will be a range of patriotic hits sung in Broadway shows, ranging from Stephen Flaherty's Ragtime to little-known gems such as Shenandoah, a 1975 show by Gary Geld. Ms. Graves will perform Gershwin's "Strike Up the Band," and a medley from Gershwin's "Of Thee I Sing." She will also sing "Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor," from Irving Berlin's 1949 musical, Miss Liberty, and "Wheels of a Dream" from Ragtime.

This will be the first of Mr. Kunzel's televised specials that is not on a holiday theme. His string of Cincinnati Pops Holiday specials for PBS began in 1995, when crooner Mel Torme starred in a Christmas show broadcast on Christmas Eve.

The most recent show, Fourth of July from the Heartland in 2000, made history when it was broadcast live from Riverbend Music Center. It was one of the final local appearances made by the Tristate's first lady of song, Rosemary Clooney, who died in June.

Other Pops specials produced for PBS have included A Family Thanksgiving (November 1999); a Valentine's Day show, Love is in the Air (February 1999); Erich Kunzel's Big Band New Year's Eve telecast (1997); and Halloween Spooktacular (1996).

Mr. Kunzel also may be seen at 9 p.m. Christmas Day on WCET-TV (Channel 48), when he conducts the San Francisco Opera production of The Merry Widow.

Ms. Graves, who was last seen in Music Hall when she performed the role of Amneris in Cincinnati Opera's Aida in the 2000 season, was recently seen by millions when she sang "America" during a 9-11 memorial service broadcast live from the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.

The Pops appearance is one of several that she is making locally in coming months. Ms. Graves will give a recital with pianist Warren Jones at 7:30 p.m., Jan. 28 in Hall Auditorium on the Miami University campus (tickets $9-$18, 513-529-3200).

She will star in Dayton Opera's inaugurating production of Verdi's Aida in the new $121 million Benjamin and Marian Schuster Performing Arts Center, March 22, 26, 28 and 30. In May, Ms. Graves will perform a solo recital to benefit Dayton Opera. (Tickets to Aida or the Dayton Opera Gala: 888-228-3630).

The PBS telecast will be produced by the CSO in association with Brandenburg Productions Inc., and WCET-TV (Channel 48). John L. Meek is the producer. The show, which usually costs about $500,000 to produce, was made possible by an unnamed donor.

Cincinnati Pops tickets: 381-3300 or www.cincinnatipops.org.

E-mail jgelfand@enquirer.com