Episodes

Since 1996, when he made a last-minute debut at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, Italy, when he was all of 23, Juan Diego Flórez has moved quickly into the front ranks of today's opera stars. Now 34, the Peruvian-born tenor enjoys a career firmly planted in the bel canto repertoire of Donizetti, Bellini, and, especially, Rossini, thanks to his light, bright, agile voice.

Richard Wagner’s epic Tristan und Isolde is visually spare and dramatically gripping interpretation. Join GREAT PERFORMANCES at the Met for this special presentation, when Deborah Voigt—one of the world’s most celebrated Wagnerian sopranos—undertakes the iconic role of Isolde for the first time at the Met. Robert Dean Smith, a veteran Tristan of the Bayreuth Festi

For a man conducting a performance nearly every day of the year, Valery Gergiev remains the calm center of the frenzied world of musicians, singers, administrators, politicians, and managers swirling around him. Learn more about the Maestro in this scene from the program.

The 1879 opera Eugene Onegin, by Tchaikovsky, the story is told by a narrator (a lightly fictionalized version of Pushkin's public image), whose tone is educated, worldly, and intimate. The narrator digresses at times, usually to expand on aspects of this social and intellectual world.

Acclaimed tenor Anthony Dean Griffey tackles the title role in Benjamin Britten’s haunting Peter Grimes. Under investigation for unthinkable transgressions, Grimes proclaims his innocence in the face of the unrelenting accusations of his fellow townspeople. Director John Doyle—a Tony Award-winner for his interpretation of Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd on Broadway—makes his Met debut.

Libretto by Ha Jin and Tan Dun, based on the HISTORICAL RECORDS by Sima Qian (c. 145-85 BCE) and on Wei Lu's screenplay for THE EMPEROR'S SHADOW

The English civil war in the 1640s has divided the land between the supporters of Parliament under Oliver Cromwell (the Roundheads) and the Royalists who are faithful to the Stuart monarchy (the Cavaliers). King Charles I has been beheaded.

On the heels of her triumph in Jenufa, Finnish soprano Karita Mattila adds another landmark role to her Met repertory, the free-spirited beauty Manon Lescaut. Puccini’s early success tells the story of the magnetic attraction between two young lovers. Joined by acclaimed tenor Marcello Giordani and conducted by James Levine, Mattila finds the perfect vehicle for her exhilarating charisma.

When the heirs of Italian chemist, author and Holocaust survivor Primo Levi gave final approval for Antony Sher’s stage adaptation of Levi’s concentration camp memoir Survival in Auschwitz (U.S. title), they insisted the play should never be performed by anyone other than the distinguished actor himself. Their faith proved well placed.

Three ladies in the service of the Queen of the Night save the fainting Prince Tamino from a serpent ("A serpent! A monster!"). When they leave to tell the queen, the bird catcher Papageno bounces in and boasts to Tamino that it was he who killed the creature ("I'm Papageno").

Verdi’s powerful Shakespearean tragedy stars Serbian baritone Željko Lu?i? in the title role; Russian star soprano Anna Netrebko in her North American debut as Lady Macbeth; German bass René Pape as Banquo, one of the victims of Macbeth's bloody rise to the throne; and Maltese tenor Joseph Calleja as Macbeth's heroic rival Macduff. Airs Feb 1 at noon on PBS (at 12:30 pm in New York).

Soprano Anna Netrebko teams up with tenor Roberto Alagna in Charles Gounod’s sensual interpretation of Shakespeare’s timeless love story. Originally premiered in 1867, Gounod’s opera was a triumph in its time, and is still praised today for its remarkable musical take on Shakespeare. Plácido Domingo presides on the conductor’s podium for this tour-de-force presentation.

The second season of GREAT PERFORMANCES at The Met on PBS features 14 operas from the Met’s series of live high-definition transmissions initially presented in movie theaters around the world. The season launches with the family favorite Hansel and Gretel, in a production by Richard Jones, conducted by Vladimir Jurowski.

Sergei Prokofiev's fanciful musical tale "Peter and the Wolf" is given new life in this innovative new animated interpretation, which won the 2008 Oscar® for Best Animated Short Film. "Oldies will remember the work from school music lessons," wrote London's OBSERVER, "while those coming to the story for the first time will be delighted with this darkly comic modernization."

Nearly 40 years after the release of his first single, beloved singer-songwriter James Taylor continues to captivate legions of fans with his characteristic, folk-inspired sound. The recipient of five Grammy® awards, and both a Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame and a Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee, Taylor has enjoyed an illustrious career and is widely acknowledged as a premier musician.