Purlie Victorious Leslie Odom Jr and cast

Great Performances

Arts and Music Series / 6 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 E3

1h 23m / TV-PG

"I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter"

2m 54s

Paul McCartney performs the Fred E. Ahlert and Joe Young classic "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter." Paul McCartney's Live Kisses airs Friday, September 7 at 9 p.m. (check local listings).

Paul McCartney's Live Kisses Preview

30s

Paul McCartney’s Live Kisses captures the magical night of February 9 in the City of Angels when Paul McCartney decided to bring Kisses On The Bottom, his newly released collection of pop standards and two originals, to life. The very special event will air on Great Performances, Friday, September 7 at 9 p.m. on PBS. (Check local listings.)

Vienna Philharmonic Summer Night 2012 Preview

30s

Distinguished conductor Gustavo Dudamel leads the fourth annual Vienna Philharmonic Summer Night 2012 concert to be telecast on Great Performances, Friday, August 31, at 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings).

Libiamo from La Traviata

3m 20s

Natalie Dessay and Matthew Polenzani perform "Libiamo" from La Traviata. 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 airing on THIRTEEN’s Great Performances at the Met Sunday, August 26 at 12 p.m. on PBS (check local listings).

GP at the Met: La Traviata

30s

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 airing on THIRTEEN’s Great Performances at the Met Sunday, August 26 at 12 p.m. on PBS (check local listings).

Jackie Evancho: Music of the Movies

30s

THIRTEEN’s Great Performances will present 12-year-old classical crossover prodigy Jackie Evancho’s second television special Jackie Evancho: Music of the Movies, in August on PBS (check local listings).

The Boston Pops Performs "Times Square: 1944"

1m 39s

The Boston Pops, under the direction of conductor Keith Lockhart, performs Leonard Bernstein's "Times Square: 1944" from “On the Town” at the “Tanglewood 75th Anniversary Celebration.” The program, featuring many of the iconic artists identified with the fete, will air on THIRTEEN’S Great Performances Friday, August 10 at 9 p.m. ET as part of the PBS Arts Summer Festival (check local listings).

James Taylor Performs "Shall We Dance?"

2m 5s

Acclaimed singer-songwriter James Taylor performs Rodger and Hammerstein's "Shall We Dance?" from “The King and I” at the “Tanglewood 75th Anniversary Celebration.” The program, featuring many of the iconic artists identified with the fete, will air on THIRTEEN’S Great Performances Friday, August 10 at 9 p.m. ET as part of the PBS Arts Summer Festival (check local listings).

Tanglewood 75th Anniversary Celebration Preview

30s

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. Tanglewood 75th Anniversary Celebration premieres Friday, August 10 at 9pm(check local listings).

GP at the Met: Manon

30s

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. Manon airs on THIRTEEN’s Great Performances at the Met Sunday, August 5 at 12 p.m. on PBS (check local listings).

GP at the Met: Ernani

30s

Angela Meade, Marcello Giodani, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, and Ferruccio Furlanetto star in Verdi’s Ernani airing on THIRTEEN’s Great Performances at the Met Sunday, June 17 at 12 p.m. on PBS (check local listings).

GP at the Met: The Enchanted Island

30s

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. It airs Friday, May 18 at 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). In New York, THIRTEEN will air an encore on Sunday, May 13 at 12 p.m.

GP at the Met: Faust

32s

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, which airs on THIRTEEN’s Great Performances at the Met Sunday, May 13, 2012.

GP at the Met: Rodelinda

30s / TV-PG

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 Sunday, April 22 at 12 p.m. (check local listings). In New York, THIRTEEN will premiere the program Thursday, April 19 at 8:30 p.m. with an encore Sunday, April 22 at 12:30 p.m.

San Francisco Symphony at 100

5m

San Francisco Symphony's Centennial Season opening night gala, conducted by Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas, will air Friday, March 30 at 9 p.m. (check local listings). 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.

The Thomashefskys

36s / TV-PG

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, airs Thursday, March 29 at 8 p.m. (check local listings), on THIRTEEN's Great Performances.

Images from Satyagraha

1m 33s / TV-PG

"Almost all the techniques of protest--now the common currency of contemporary political life--were invented and perfected by Gandhi during his South Africa years," Philip Glass has said. See stills from the revival of Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch's 2008 innovative production of Satyagraha, Glass' opera covering Gandhi's early life in South Africa.

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