Great Performances (1971)
The best in the performing arts from across America and around the world including a diverse programming portfolio of classical music, opera, popular song, musical theater, dance, drama, and performance documentaries.
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Episode 1 - GRAMMY Salute to Music Legends® 2018
Release Date: 2018-10-05Enjoy an all-star concert honoring Neil Diamond, Tina Turner, Queen, film composer John Williams, New Orleans funk band The Meters and other recipients of the Grammy Lifetime Achievement, Trustee and Music Educator awards.
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Episode 2 - An American In Paris The Musical
Release Date: 2018-11-02Experience one of the most famous musicals of all time with a celebrated new adaptation featuring the original Tony Award-nominated stars Robert Fairchild and Leanne Cope. The acclaimed production was directed and choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon.
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Episode 3 - Sound of Music
Release Date: 2018-11-09Beloved by generations of audiences worldwide, “The Sound of Music” tells the inspiring true story of the von Trapp Family Singers and their escape from Austria during the rise of Nazism. Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1959 hit stage musical garnered five Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and the blockbuster 1965 movie adaptation won five Oscars, including Best Picture. Great Performances presents the 2015 live U.K. broadcast version starring Kara Tointon as Maria, Julian Ovenden as Captain von Trapp, Katherine Kelley as Baroness Schraeder, Alexander Armstrong as Max, and Maria Friedman as the Mother Abbess. Cinematically photographed on adjoining sound stages, the production offers a more naturalistic interpretation of this great classic of the American musical theater. Among the many classic songs featured in the score are “The Sound of Music,” “My Favorite Things,” “Do-Re-Mi,” “Climb Every Mountain,” “Edelweiss” and more.
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Episode 4 - John Leguizamo’s Road to Broadway
Release Date: 2018-11-16Go behind-the-scenes of John Leguizamo’s Tony-nominated one-man show, Latin History for Morons, a comic but pointed look at how Hispanic culture has been portrayed and repressed throughout American history.
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Episode 5 - Harold Prince: The Director’s Life
Release Date: 2018-11-23Take a peek into the legendary career of the pioneering Broadway producer and director and winner of 21 Tony Awards with this retrospective celebration featuring Stephen Sondheim, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Mandy Patinkin, John Kander, Susan Stroman, and Angela Lansbury.
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Episode 6 - Tony Bennett & Diana Krall – Love Is Here to Stay
Release Date: 2018-11-24Join Tony Bennett and Diana Krall as they celebrate the American Songbook classics of George and Ira Gershwin, performing favorites from their Billboard #1 jazz album, “Love is Here to Stay,” such as “I Got Rhythm,” “Love is Here to Stay” and “They Can’t Take That Away From Me.”
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Episode 7 - Michael Bublé: Tour Stop 148
Release Date: 2018-11-24Experience superstar singer Michael Bublé’s visually thrilling and musically triumphant ‘To Be Loved Tour’ featuring performances of his biggest hits including “Home” and “Haven’t Met You Yet” along with exclusive footage of Team Bublé travels.
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Episode 8 - k.d. lang – Landmarks Live in Concert
Release Date: 2018-12-14Celebrate the 25th anniversary Ingénue, the critically acclaimed and GRAMMY®-award winning album by superstar singer-songwriter k.d. lang with a one-night-only performance from the magnificent Majestic Theater in downtown San Antonio, Texas.
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Episode 9 - Leonard Bernstein Centennial Celebration at Tanglewood
Release Date: 2018-12-28In honor of Leonard Bernstein’s 100th birthday, Tanglewood—the famed summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra—dedicated its entire 2018 season to the iconic composer, conductor, performer, educator and humanitarian.
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Episode 10 - Great Performances at the Met: Aida
Release Date: 2019-01-20Watch Verdi’s grand opera featuring his most celebrated arias. Starring vocal powerhouses Anna Netrebko in the title role and Anita Rachvelishvili as Amneris as they go toe to toe in this love story set in ancient Egypt. Nicola Luisotti conducts.
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Episode 11 - From Vienna: The New Year’s Celebration 2019
Release Date: 2019-01-01Great Performances continues the cherished tradition of ringing in the new year with the Vienna Philharmonic at the opulent Musikverein. Under the baton of guest conductor Christian Thielemann, the celebration features favorite Strauss Family waltzes and the dancing of the Vienna State Ballet. Downton Abbey’s Earl of Grantham, Hugh Bonneville, returns as host.
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Episode 12 - The Cleveland Orchestra Centennial Celebration
Release Date: 2019-01-11Celebrate the orchestra’s centennial with a gala concert conducted by Franz Welser-Möst, featuring pianist Lang Lang, and works by Mozart, Strauss, and Ravel, with vignettes of past music directors.
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Episode 13 - Orphée et Eurydice from Lyric Opera of Chicago
Release Date: 2019-01-18Experience Christoph Willibald Gluck’s enduringly popular French-language opera based on the famous Greek myth. From Lyric Opera of Chicago in collaboration with The Joffrey Ballet. Starring Dmitry Korchak, Andriana Chuchman and Lauren Snouffer.
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Episode 14 - Doubt from the Minnesota Opera
Release Date: 2019-01-25Watch an adaptation of John Patrick Shanley’s hit 2005 Broadway play and the 2008 film about suspicion leading to a battle of wills at a Bronx Catholic school. Starring Christine Brewer, Adriana Zabala, Matthew Worth and Denyce Graves.
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Episode 15 - Great Performances at the Met: Marnie
Release Date: 2019-02-01Watch composer Nico Muhly’s reimagining of Winston Graham’s novel about a beautiful, mysterious woman who assumes multiple identities. Starring Isabel Leonard in the title role alongside Christopher Maltman as Mark Rutland. Robert Spano conducts.
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Episode 16 - Movies for Grownups Awards with AARP The Magazine 2019
Release Date: 2019-02-15The AARP Movies for Grownups multimedia franchise was established in 2002 to celebrate and encourage filmmaking with unique appeal to movie lovers with a grownup state of mind—and recognize the inspiring artists who make them.
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Episode 17 - Great Performances at the Met: La Fanciulla del West
Release Date: 2019-02-24Watch Puccini’s blazing love story set in the Wild West, based on David Belasco’s play “The Girl of the Golden West,” starring Eva-Maria Westbroek and Jonas Kaufmann. Marco Armiliato conducts.
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Episode 18 - Andrea Bocelli @ 60
Release Date: 2019-03-02Celebrate the world-renowned tenor with a concert spotlighting his popular music and opera repertoire including the duet “Fall on Me” performed with his son Matteo along with songs from his new album “Si.”
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Episode 19 - Joni 75: A Birthday Celebration
Release Date: 2019-03-02The songs of legendary singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell’s are among the most sublime musical landscapes of human emotion ever created. Mitchell’s unique musical and lyrical gifts are an unprecedented marriage of intimacy and universality, creating a sound that is incomparable, yet relatable to all.
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Episode 20 - Birgit Nilsson: A League of Her Own
Release Date: 2019-03-22Celebrate the life of Swedish soprano Birgit Nilsson, the face of opera in the late 1950s-70s. This new documentary showcases her greatest roles, including Elektra and The Ring Cycle, in rare footage, plus interviews with Plácido Domingo and more.
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Episode 21 - Great Performances at the Met: Samson et Dalila
Release Date: 2019-03-24Watch Saint-Saëns’s biblical epic based on the tale of Samson and Delilah from the Book of Judges. Starring tenor Roberto Alagna and mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča in the title roles. Sir Mark Elder conducts.
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Episode 22 - Julius Caesar from Donmar
Release Date: 2019-03-29Set in a women’s prison, Great Performances: Julius Caesar offers a powerful dramatization of the catastrophic consequences of a political leader’s extension of power beyond constitutional confines through an all-female lens.
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Episode 23 - Great Performances at the Met: La Traviata
Release Date: 2019-04-05See Michael Mayer’s richly textured production of Verdi’s classic opera, starring soprano Diana Damrau as the tragic heroine Violetta and Juan Diego Flórez as her hapless lover Alfredo. Met Opera music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts.
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Episode 24 - Great Performances at the Met: Adriana Lecouvreur
Release Date: 2019-05-12Watch Cilea’s classic opera starring Anna Netrebko in the title role of the real-life French actress who dazzled 18th-century audiences with her on-and offstage passion, with Piotr Beczała as her lover, Maurizio.
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Episode 25 - Great Performances at the Met: Carmen
Release Date: 2019-06-16Watch Sir Richard Eyre’s production of Bizet’s masterpiece starring Clémentine Margaine reprising her role as opera’s ultimate seductress alongside Roberto Alagna as her impassioned lover Don José. Louis Langréeconducts.
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Episode 26 - Great Performances at the Met: La Fille du Régiment
Release Date: 2019-07-07Watch Donizetti’s romantic comedy about a budding military relationship starring Pretty Yende and Javier Camarena in a feast of bel canto vocal fireworks. Special guest Kathleen Turner makes her Met debut. Enrique Mazzola conducts.
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Episode 27 - Great Performances at the Met: Die Walküre
Release Date: 2019-08-11Experience a Wagnerian event for the ages starring Christine Goerke as the willful warrior Brünnhilde alongside Stuart Skelton, Eva-Maria Westbroek and Greer Grimsley. Philippe Jordan conducts.
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Episode 28 - Vienna Philharmonic Summer Night Concert 2019
Release Date: 2019-08-09Enjoy the world-renowned Vienna Philharmonic’s annual concert from Schönbrunn Palace with guest conductor Gustavo Dudamel and famed pianist Yuja Wang playing works including Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” and Sousa’s “The Stars and Stripes Forever.”
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Episode 29 - Vienna Philharmonic Summer Night Concert 2019
Release Date: 2019-08-09Enjoy the world-renowned Vienna Philharmonic’s annual concert from Schönbrunn Palace with guest conductor Gustavo Dudamel and famed pianist Yuja Wang playing works including Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” and Sousa’s “The Stars and Stripes Forever.”
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Episode 30 - Great Performances at the Met: Dialogues Des Carmélites
Release Date: 2019-09-01Watch John Dexter’s production of the Poulenc classic about the power of faith, starring Isabel Leonard as Blanche and Karita Mattila as the Prioress. Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts.