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

Adriana Lecouvreur Preview

30s

Watch 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.

La Traviata Preview

30s

See 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.

Julius Caesar from Donmar Preview

2m 52s

Set 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.

Samson et Dalila Preview

30s

Watch 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.

Birgit and her "Tosca" Co-Stars

2m 32s

Nilsson performed "Tosca" numerous times in her career. See rare footage of her with her 1968 co-star, Italian lyric tenor Gianni Raimondi, and hear Spanish tenor Plácido Domingo describe performing a matinee with her in 1969.

Birgit's Vocal Technique

1m 53s

Watch as German operatic tenor Jonas Kaufmann explains why Birgit Nilsson was "an unbelievable force of nature" while English-Italian conductor Antonio Pappano breaks down her 1969 performance of "Turandot."

Birgit Nilsson: A League of Her Own

30s

Celebrate 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.

Andrea Bocelli @ 60

35s

Celebrate 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.”

"Big Yellow Taxi” - Joni 75: A Birthday Celebration

1m 57s

Stars Brandi Carlile; Glen Hansard; Emmylou Harris; Norah Jones; Chaka Khan; Diana Krall; Kris Kristofferson; Los Lobos with La Marisoul, Cesar Castro and Xochi Flores; Graham Nash; Seal; James Taylor; and Rufus Wainwright perform Joni Mitchell’s hit "Big Yellow Taxi" celebrating her 75th birthday celebration.

La Fanciulla del West Preview

30s

Watch 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.

Shirley MacLaine's Acceptance Speech

2m 15s

Shirley MacLaine accepts her Career Achievement Honor for her remarkable career comprising more than 50 feature films highlighted by an Academy Award® win and six nominations, seven Golden Globe® Awards — including the Cecil B. DeMille Award for Lifetime Achievement — and six Emmy® Award nominations.

Glenn Close Accepts the Award for Best Actress

2m 13s

Glenn Close said she felt like she was standing on the shoulders of many women — including her mother and two grandmothers — as she accepted the Best Actress award presented by Michael Douglas.

Movies for Grownups Awards with AARP The Magazine Preview

33s

The 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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