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Great Performances

Arts and Music Series / 5 Seasons

Great Performances brings the best in the performing arts from across America and around the world to a US television audience. It presents a diverse programming portfolio of classical music, opera, popular song, musical theater, dance, drama, and performance documentaries.

Watch Latest: S52 E14

54m 24s / TV-G

Lily Tomlin Accepts Career Achievement Award

3m 19s

Lily Tomlin accepts the Career Achievement Award for her work in film and television at the Movies for Grownups Awards with AARP the Magazine. Lily Tomlin has led a storied career within the entertainment industry - earning eight Emmy Awards, two Tony Awards, and a Grammy Award.

Spotlighting Movies for Grownups Awards

1m 17s

First broadcast on PBS in 2018, Movies for Grownups Awards with AARP the Magazine returns for a fifth year 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.

Movies for Grownups with AARP the Magazine Preview

30s

First broadcast on PBS in 2018, Movies for Grownups Awards with AARP the Magazine returns for a fifth year 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. Each year the centerpiece honor is the Career Achievement Award, celebrating the contributions cinema legends.

Erin Morley Performs as Eurydice

2m 5s

Soprano Erin Morley sings an excerpt of the Act II aria "This is what it is to love an artist." The opera reimagines the famous Greek tragedy of Orpheus and Eurydice from Eurydice's point of view.

Great Performances at the Met: Eurydice Preview

30s

The ancient Greek myth of Orpheus, who attempts to harness the power of music to rescue his beloved Eurydice from the Underworld, has inspired composers since opera’s earliest days. With a libretto by Sarah Ruhl adapted from her acclaimed 2003 play, the opera reimagines the familiar tale from Eurydice’s point of view.

Great Performances at the Met: Boris Godunov Preview

30s

Bass René Pape, the world’s reigning Boris, reprises his portrayal of the tortured tsar caught between ambition and paranoia. Conductor Sebastian Weigle leads Mussorgsky’s Russian masterwork in its original 1869 version. Stephen Wadsworth’s production captures the hope and suffering of the Russian people as well as the tsar himself. Met Opera soprano Angel Blue hosts.

René Pape performs Scene VII of Boris Godunov

2m 29s

René Pape, playing the title character in Boris Godunov, performs a section of Scene VII. In Modest Mussorgsky's opera, the Russian Tsar finds himself caught between his own ambition and his growing paranoia.

Reopening: The Broadway Revival Preview

30s

Go behind the scenes of Broadway as shows reunite, rehearse and re-stage for their long-awaited reopening nights while the theater industry learns how to turn the lights back on after its longest hiatus in history due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

From Vienna: The New Year's Celebration 2022 Preview

30s

Ring in the new year in Austria at the Musikverein with the Vienna Philharmonic and host Hugh Bonneville in this annual concert of waltzes by Strauss and more under the baton of guest conductor Daniel Barenboim.

Great Performances at the Met: New Year's Eve Gala Preview

30s

The Met rings in the new year with a gala performance featuring stars Angel Blue, Pretty Yende, Javier Camarena and Matthew Polenzani. Performing from the Parktheater in Kurhaus Göggingen in Augsburg, Germany, the program features arias, duets and ensembles from Donizetti to Puccini, as well as arrangements of operetta and Neapolitan songs.

Excerpts from Great Performances at the Met: New Year's Eve

5m 45s

Watch Met stars Angel Blue, Pretty Yende, Javier Camarena and Matthew Polenzani sing highlights from Great Performances at the Met: New Year's Eve Gala. Performing from the Parktheater in Kurhaus Göggingen in Augsburg, Germany, the program features arias, duets and ensembles from Donizetti to Puccini, as well as arrangements of operetta and Neapolitan songs.

GP at the Met: Bryn Terfel & Friends in Concert Preview

30s

Recorded December 2020, the legendary bass-baritone Sir Bryn Terfel performs a holiday program accompanied by Jeff Howard on piano and the Welsh traditional folk group Calan from Brecon Cathedral in the singer’s native Wales.

Unforgettable With Love - Natalie Cole Preview

30s

Enjoy this special encore of Natalie Cole’s Emmy-winning concert of her GRAMMY-winning album in Great Performances: Unforgettable With Love - Natalie Cole. Featuring classics such as “Mona Lisa,” “The Very Thought of You” and “For Sentimental Reasons,” the concert also features a special performance of Nat King Cole’s signature song “Unforgettable” sung as a duet by Natalie Cole and her father.

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