Airing Sunday, June 8 at 12 noon, the half-hour news program leads into a 12:30 encore broadcast of the Met's 2006-2007 production of Rossini's popular work. Staged by Bartlett Sher (Tony-nominated this year for his direction of South Pacific at Lincoln Center Theatre), this boisterous production stars the dashing young Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Fl‹rez as Count Almaviva, with Swedish baritone Peter Mattei as the wily barber Figaro and American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato as saucy young heroine Rosina. Maurizio Benini conducts.

The lead SundayArts News segment will report from the Rubin Museum of Art, which is looking east this summer with From the Land of the Gods: Art of the Kathmandu Valley and Nepal in Black and White: Photographs by Kevin Bubriski. Further news segments also highlight the Human Rights Watch Film Festival at the Museum of Natural History, Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet's spring season, and the Affordable Art Fair at Madison Square Park.

This week's SundayArts Profile focuses on street artist Ellis Gallagher, a.k.a. Ellis G., whose ubiquitous chalk works have adorned the five boroughs. SundayArts "Choice" will explore the Brooklyn Museum of Art's Winter Scenes, a pair of paintings that have become iconic images of early 19th century downtown Brooklyn, with curator Terry Carbone.

For more information visit www.thirteen.org/sundayarts/

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SundayArts is Thirteen/WNET's on-air/online series through which arts enthusiasts everywhere can access the Big Apple's cultural best. New York's public television station has long partnered with the city's most celebrated cultural institutions, capturing and broadcasting their work on PBS.

Every Sunday at noon on Thirteen, SundayArts wraps insightful interviews, on-location features, profiles, and introductions around a showcased presentation. SundayArts News segments cover current cultural highlights while Curator's Choice briefs offer first-hand, insider reviews of highlights from shows and events around town. Profiles of cultural figures reflect the eclectic New York arts scene.

For those outside of Thirteen's tri-state viewing area, www.thirteen.org/sundayarts makes New York's cultural bounty accessible anytime, from anywhere. The video-rich new site features the latest arts news, interviews, and previews of SundayArts broadcasts. Contributing bloggers Elizabeth Vincentelli (Time Out New York), Adam Wasserman (Opera News) and cultural journalist Jennifer Melick add knowledgeable, lively dialogue to the site. Users are encouraged to email questions and comments to the host, artists and organizations.

Funding for SundayArts has been provided by The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation. Additional funding has been provided by The Lemberg Foundation.

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Thirteen/WNET New York is one of the key program providers for public television, bringing such acclaimed series as Nature, Great Performances, American Masters, Charlie Rose, Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly, Wide Angle, Secrets of the Dead, NOW With David Brancaccio, Expos_, Bill Moyers Journal, and Cyberchase to audiences nationwide. As the flagship public broadcaster in the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut metro area, Thirteen reaches millions of viewers each week, airing the best of American public television along with its own local productions such as New York Voices, Reel 13 and SundayArts.