Seasons & episodes

S39 · E7Great Performances at the Met: Anna Bolena 2012-01-20＋

The Metropolitan Opera premiere of Donizetti's Anna Bolena, starring soprano Anna Netrebko in her highly anticipated first North American performances of the tour-de-force title role, will be the 2012 season opener of Great Performances at the Met.

S39 · E8Tony Bennett: Duets II 2012-01-27＋

Tony Bennett: Duets II features the singer's greatest hits, performed by Bennett and today's biggest stars, including John Mayer, Michael Buble, k.d. lang, Sheryl Crow, Willie Nelson, Queen Latifah, Norah Jones, Josh Groban, Faith Hill, Alejandro Sanz, Carrie Underwood and more.

S39 · E9Memphis 2012-02-24＋

Broadway's smash hit musical Memphis, winner of four Tony Awards including Best Musical, Best Score, Best Book and Best Orchestrations, comes to Great Performances. Memphis is the first Best Musical Tony Award winner to air on U.S. national television with its original principals while continuing a successful Broadway run and national tour.

S39 · E10Great Performances at the Met: Don Giovanni 2012-02-26＋

Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi leads his first Met performances of Mozart's Don Giovanni in a new production directed by Tony Award winner Michael Grandage in his Met debut.

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.

S39 · E12The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall 2012-03-29＋

The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall, a fully-staged, lavish 25th anniversary mounting of Andrew Lloyd Webber's long-running Broadway and West End extravaganza. Ramin Karimloo and Sierra Boggess star in a spectacular presentation from the ornate London concert venue with a host of special guest stars at the conclusion.

S39 · E13Great Performances at the Met: Satyagraha 2012-03-25＋

Philip Glass's inspirational opera Satyagraha (Sanskrit for "truth force"), in the first revival of Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch's innovative 2008 production.

S39 · E14San Francisco Symphony at 100 2012-03-30＋

San Francisco Symphony's Centennial Season opening night gala, conducted by Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas. 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.

S39 · E15Great Performances at the Met: Rodelinda 2012-04-22＋

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.

S39 · E16Great Performances at the Met: Faust 2012-05-13＋

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.

S39 · E17Great Performances at the Met: The Enchanted Island 2012-05-18＋

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.

S39 · E18Great Performances at the Met: Ernani 2012-06-17＋

Angela Meade, Marcello Giodani, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, and Ferruccio Furlanetto star in Verdi’s Ernani.

S39 · E19Great Performances at the Met: Manon 2012-08-05＋

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.

S39 · E20Tanglewood 75th Anniversary Celebration 2012-08-10＋

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.

S39 · E21Jackie Evancho: Music of the Movies 2012-08-11＋

THIRTEEN’s Great Performances will present 12-year-old classical crossover prodigy Jackie Evancho’s second television special Jackie Evancho: Music of the Movies.

S39 · E22Great Performances at the Met: La Traviata 2012-08-26＋

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.

Under the baton of the dynamic and electric guest maestro, Gustavo Dudamel, the Vienna Philharmonic performs the finale of Amilcare Ponchielli’s “Dance of the Hours” from the opera “La Gioconda.”

S39 · E24Great Performances at the Met: Wagner's Dream 2012-09-10＋

Robert Lepage’s acclaimed new production of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen.

S40 · E1Paul McCartney's Live Kisses 2012-09-07＋

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.

S40 · E2Rod Stewart: Merry Christmas, Baby 2012-11-26＋

Grammy Award®-winning, two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Rod Stewart, hosts his first holiday special featuring Mary J. Blige, Cee-Lo Green, and Chris Botti.

S40 · E3Magical Mystery Tour Revisited 2012-12-14＋

Magical Mystery Tour was chock-full of thinly veiled references to psychedelia, anarchy and fantasy, all in the setting of a traditional British sightseeing bus outing to the seaside. The story behind the Beatles film – Magical Mystery Tour – is revealed on Magical Mystery Tour Revisited.

We continue the cherished tradition of ringing in the New Year with special host Julie Andrews and the Vienna Philharmonic at the opulent Musikverein, under the baton of guest conductor Franz Welser-Möst and featuring everyone’s favorite Strauss Family waltzes accompanied by the beautiful dancing of the Vienna City Ballet.

S40 · E5Broadway Musicals: A Jewish Legacy 2013-01-01＋

This film explores the unique role of Jewish composers and lyricists in the creation of the modern American musical. Featuring interviews and conversations with some of the greatest composers and writers of the Broadway stage.

An epic journey following Paul Simon back to South Africa, where, decades earlier, he created his seminal album Graceland. The film includes revealing interviews with Simon and such musical legends as Quincy Jones, Harry Belafonte, Paul McCartney and David Byrne.