Great Performances
Season 39
201124 episodes
Episode 1
Let Them Talk: A Celebration of New Orleans Blues
Sep 30, 201153m
An American favorite for his award-winning role in the hit TV series House, the versatile British actor Hugh Laurie showcases his musical side in an atmospheric personal odyssey filmed on location in New Orleans.
Episode 2
Andrea Bocelli: Live in Central Park
Dec 2, 20112h 26m
Beloved tenor Andrea Bocelli performs a free concert on Central Park's Great Lawn, with the New York Philharmonic conducted by its music director Alan Gilbert. Joining Bocelli on stage on this memorable night are Celine Dion, Tony Bennett, Chris Botti and David Foster.
Episode 3
The Little Mermaid from San Francisco Ballet
Dec 16, 2011
John Neumeier -- director and chief choreographer for Hamburg Ballet -- blends dance, dramatic storytelling and spectacle into a unique interpretation of a classic Hans Christian Andersen’s tale. With choreography, sets, costumes, and lighting, all by Neumeier, this ballet—as much theater as it is dance—takes the dancers into deep emotional terrain.
Episode 4
From Vienna: The New Year's Celebration 2012
Jan 1, 2012
Episode 5
Herbie Hancock, Gustavo Dudamel and the LA PHIL Celebrate
Jan 6, 2012
Herbie Hancock, Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Phil Celebrate Gershwin, featuring that classic piece as well as "An American in Paris" and Hancock's unique improvisation on the great standard "Someone to Watch Over Me."
Episode 6
Let Me Down Easy
Jan 13, 2012
Anna Deavere Smith's latest production, Let Me Down Easy. The Great Performances production was recorded in February 2011 in the Kreeger Theater at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater in Washington, DC, launching a national tour that concluded in September.
Episode 7
Great Performances at the Met: Anna Bolena
Jan 20, 2012
The Metropolitan Opera premiere of Donizetti's Anna Bolena, starring soprano Anna Netrebko in her highly anticipated first North American performances of the tour-de-force title role, will be the 2012 season opener of Great Performances at the Met.
Episode 8
Tony Bennett: Duets II
Jan 27, 2012
Tony Bennett: Duets II features the singer's greatest hits, performed by Bennett and today's biggest stars, including John Mayer, Michael Buble, k.d. lang, Sheryl Crow, Willie Nelson, Queen Latifah, Norah Jones, Josh Groban, Faith Hill, Alejandro Sanz, Carrie Underwood and more.
Episode 9
Memphis
Feb 24, 2012
Broadway's smash hit musical Memphis, winner of four Tony Awards including Best Musical, Best Score, Best Book and Best Orchestrations, comes to Great Performances. Memphis is the first Best Musical Tony Award winner to air on U.S. national television with its original principals while continuing a successful Broadway run and national tour.
Episode 10
Great Performances at the Met: Don Giovanni
Feb 26, 2012
Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi leads his first Met performances of Mozart's Don Giovanni in a new production directed by Tony Award winner Michael Grandage in his Met debut.
Episode 11
The Thomashefskys
Mar 29, 2012
The Thomashefskys: Music and Memories of a Life in the Yiddish Theater, a celebration of Yiddish theater pioneers Boris and Bessie Thomashefsky by their grandson, Michael Tilson Thomas, Artistic Director of the New World Symphony.
Episode 12
The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall
Mar 29, 2012
The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall, a fully-staged, lavish 25th anniversary mounting of Andrew Lloyd Webber's long-running Broadway and West End extravaganza. Ramin Karimloo and Sierra Boggess star in a spectacular presentation from the ornate London concert venue with a host of special guest stars at the conclusion.
Episode 13
Great Performances at the Met: Satyagraha
Mar 25, 2012
Philip Glass's inspirational opera Satyagraha (Sanskrit for "truth force"), in the first revival of Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch's innovative 2008 production.
Episode 14
San Francisco Symphony at 100
Mar 30, 2012
San Francisco Symphony's Centennial Season opening night gala, conducted by Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas. The two-hour broadcast is hosted by author Amy Tan and features Tilson Thomas conducting the Orchestra and two of the leading artists of our time: legendary violinist Itzhak Perlman and the dynamic pianist Lang Lang.
Episode 15
Great Performances at the Met: Rodelinda
Apr 22, 2012
Renee Fleming reprises one of her most popular interpretations: the title role in Handel's Rodelinda, under the baton of Baroque specialist Harry Bicket in the revival of Stephen Wadsworth's acclaimed production.
Episode 16
Great Performances at the Met: Faust
May 13, 2012
Three of the opera world’s leading stars—Jonas Kaufmann, Marina Poplavskaya, and René Pape—sing the principal roles in a new production of Gounod’s Faust, directed by Tony Award winner Des McAnuff in his Met debut. Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts his first Met performances of the opera.
Episode 17
Great Performances at the Met: The Enchanted Island
May 18, 2012
The Enchanted Island is a world premiere work that combines Baroque music with a new, English-language libretto featuring characters from Shakespeare, and a starry cast including Danielle de Niese, Joyce DiDonato, David Daniels, Plácido Domingo, and Luca Pisaroni.
Episode 18
Great Performances at the Met: Ernani
Jun 17, 2012
Angela Meade, Marcello Giodani, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, and Ferruccio Furlanetto star in Verdi’s Ernani.
Episode 19
Great Performances at the Met: Manon
Aug 5, 2012
Star soprano Anna Netrebko sings her first Met performances of the title role in Manon, Massenet’s opera about a country girl with conflicting desires for love and luxury who is drawn into a life of glamorous -- but hollow -- Parisian sophistication.
Episode 20
Tanglewood 75th Anniversary Celebration
Aug 10, 2012
The concert features the BSO, Boston Pops Orchestra and Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, under the direction of conductors John Williams, Keith Lockhart and Andris Nelsons. Performances by pianists Emanuel Ax and Peter Serkin, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter and vocalist James Taylor.
Episode 21
Jackie Evancho: Music of the Movies
Aug 11, 2012
THIRTEEN’s Great Performances will present 12-year-old classical crossover prodigy Jackie Evancho’s second television special Jackie Evancho: Music of the Movies.
Episode 22
Great Performances at the Met: La Traviata
Aug 26, 2012
Acclaimed French soprano Natalie Dessay makes her Met role debut as Violetta, the fallen woman who sacrifices her last chance for love, in Verdi’s La Traviata.
Episode 23
Vienna Philharmonic Summer Night Concert 2012
Aug 31, 2012
Under the baton of the dynamic and electric guest maestro, Gustavo Dudamel, the Vienna Philharmonic performs the finale of Amilcare Ponchielli’s “Dance of the Hours” from the opera “La Gioconda.”
Episode 24
Great Performances at the Met: Wagner's Dream
Sep 10, 2012
Robert Lepage’s acclaimed new production of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen.