Episodes

A musical exploration of liturgical and traditional works in new arrangements for both chamber orchestra and klezmer settings. Violinist Itzhak Perlman calls Eastern European Jewish music “chicken soup for the soul.”

Met Music Director James Levine conducts Mozart’s barbed romance, a comic masterpiece about the romantic complications that ensue when a pair of friends decide to test their fiancées’ fidelity.

Set in the Vienna palace garden, the Vienna Philharmonic program celebrates Richard Strauss' 150th birthday with piano virtuoso Lang Lang and symphonic poems by Berlioz and Strauss.

The acclaimed outdoor performance celebrating the 200th anniversary of Verdi’s birth is interspersed with archival footage and features Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Master Chorale and internationally acclaimed soloists Julianna Di Giacomo, Michelle DeYoung, Vittorio Grigolo and Ildebrando D’Arcangelo. Airs on Great Performances on Friday, August 1 at 9 pm.

Eli Wallach appeared in Great Performances' Paradise Lost in 1974 as well as a 2002 documentary about the making of the famous Clark Gable western The Misfits, aptly titled Making The Misfits.

Franco Zeffirelli’s production of La Bohème, the most-performed opera in Met history, starring Italian tenor Vittorio Grigolo and Latvian soprano Kristine Opolais, airs on Great Performances at the Met on Friday, June 27 at 9 pm. Opolais made headlines when she made her company role debut as Mimì with a few hours notice, having sung the title role in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly the night before.

Borodin's Russian epic Prince Igor, performed by the Met for the first time in nearly 100 years, comes to Great Performances at the Met on June 22, 2014. The acclaimed new production by director Dmitri Tcherniakov, in his Met debut, stars Ildar Abdrazakov as the title character, a 12th-century ruler who defended Russia against invading Polovtsian forces.

Renée Fleming sings one of her signature roles, the title character in Dvo?ák's Rusalka, an opera about a water spirit's tragic romance with a prince. The story is drawn partly from Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid." Conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin leads a cast that includes Piotr Beczala; Dolora Zajick; Emily Magee; and John Relyea as Rusalka's father, the Water Sprite.

Leo's kiss of true love breaks the curse that has held Princess Aurora (Hannah Vassallo) under its spell. After 100 years of sleep, Aurora discovers Leo (Dominic North) has been transformed in order to have eternal life and reunite with her. Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty airs on Great Performances, Friday, April 25 at 9 pm on PBS.

Verdi’s brilliant final opera, "Falstaff," is conducted by Metropolitan Opera Music Director James Levine in his first Great Performances at the Met in nearly two years. With Ambrogio Maestri, Angela Meade and Stephanie Blythe, this is the first new Met production of "Falstaff" in 50 years. Airing Sunday, April 13, 2014, at noon on PBS (check local listings; airs April 10 at 9 pm on Thirteen).

In the 1960s, the British band The Dave Clark Five achieved a record-breaking 15 consecutive Top 20 U.S. hit singles within two-years — more than any other group in the world except the Beatles. Footage of iconic performances on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and interviews with Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Dionne Warwick and more round out the two-hour film.

Rock & roll royalty Donald Fagen (Steely Dan), Michael McDonald (The Doobie Brothers) and Boz Scaggs join forces as their own new super group The Dukes of September, paying tribute to the R&B and soul music that inspired them along with fresh, exciting performances of some of their greatest hits. Check local PBS listings for air dates in March 2014.

See Steve Martin and The Steep Canyon Rangers, featuring Edie Brickell, in their first-ever live concert performance to be broadcast on television. Check back for the March 2014 air date. The evening of Martin’s unique blend of comedy and bluegrass took place at the historic Fox Performing Arts Center in Riverside, California in the fall of 2013.

Great Performances presents a special encore of highlights from 1992’s star-studded concert tribute to Bob Dylan, the American pop music icon, at New York City’s Madison Square Garden. The concert gathered an amazing Who’s Who of performers to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the enigmatic singer-songwriter’s groundbreaking debut album from 1962, "Bob Dylan." Check local listings for March 2014.

William Kentridge‘s dazzlingly innovative production of Shostakovich’s shocking, unconventional opera about a beleaguered Russian official and his runaway nose stars Tony Award winner Paulo Szot as Kovalyov, a bureaucrat who awakes one morning to discover that his nose has run away. Great Performances at the Met airs Sunday, February 23, 2014, at 12 noon on PBS.