About this season
The best in the performing arts from across America and around the world including a diverse programming portfolio of classical music, opera, popular song, musical theater, dance, drama, and performance documentaries.
Episodes (22)
1. Great Performances at the Met: Der Rosenkavalier
Aired 10 September 2023
Strauss’s grand Viennese comedy includes soprano Lise Davidsen as the aging Marschallin, opposite mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard as her lover Octavian and soprano Erin Morley as Sophie, the beautiful younger woman who steals his heart. Bass Günther Groissböck returns as the churlish Baron Ochs, and Markus Brück is Sophie’s wealthy father, Faninal. Maestro Simone Young takes the Met podium to oversee Robert Carsen’s staging. Deborah Voigt hosts.
2. Great Performances at the Met: Don Giovanni
Aired 1 October 2023
Tony Award–winning director Ivo van Hove makes his Met debut with a new take on Mozart’s tragicomedy, re-setting the familiar tale of deceit and damnation in an abstract architectural landscape. Maestro Nathalie Stutzmann also makes her Met debut, conducting the cast led by baritone Peter Mattei in the title role alongside bass-baritone Adam Plachetka as Leporello. Sopranos Federica Lombardi, Ana María Martínez and Ying Fang portray Giovanni’s conquests—Donna Anna, Donna Elvira and Zerlina—and tenor Ben Bliss is Don Ottavio. Erin Morley hosts.
3. New York City Ballet in Madrid
Aired 27 October 2023 • 85 min
Captured in peak performance at Madrid’s Teatro Real, New York City Ballet performs two masterpieces choreographed by NYCB co-founder and original Artistic Director George Balanchine, “Serenade” and “Square Dance" as well as a piece by current resident choreographer Justin Peck.
4. Message In A Bottle
Aired 3 November 2023 • 86 min
Experience five-time Olivier Award nominee Kate Prince’s dance and theater show set to the songs of 17-time Grammy winner Sting. Telling the story of a migrant family, the show from London’s Sadler's Wells Theatre features a mix of dance styles.
5. Great Performances at the Met: Champion
Aired 5 November 2023
Six-time Grammy Award–winning composer Terence Blanchard returns to the Met with an opera based on the true story of boxer Emile Griffith, who rose from obscurity to become a world champion despite being a closeted bisexual. Bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green stars as the young boxer, with bass-baritone Eric Owens as Griffith’s older self, haunted by the ghosts of his past. Soprano Latonia Moore also stars as Emelda Griffith, the boxer’s estranged mother, and mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe plays the gay bar owner, Kathy Hagen. The production reunites the creative team from last season’s Great Performances at the Met: Fire Shut Up in My Bones, including conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, director James Robinson, and choreographer Camille A. Brown. Lawrence Brownlee hosts.
6. Making Shakespeare: The First Folio
Aired 17 November 2023 • 114 min
Celebrate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s First Folio, which saved 18 plays from being lost. Tracing the First Folio’s story, the film also spotlights how New York City’s Public Theater presents Shakespeare’s work for today’s audiences.
7. Great Performances at the Met: Die Zauberflöte
Aired 10 December 2023
Experience director Simon McBurney’s Met debut with a new production of this Mozart favorite. Nathalie Stutzmann conducts with Lawrence Brownlee as Tamino, Erin Morley as Pamina, Thomas Oliemans as Papageno and Kathryn Lewek as the Queen of the Night.
8. From Vienna: The New Year’s Celebration 2024
Aired 1 January 2024
Celebrate the New Year with waltzes by Strauss and more performed from Vienna’s Musikverein by the famed orchestra led by guest conductor Christian Thielemann. PBS favorite Hugh Bonneville returns to host.
9. Great Performances at the Met: The Life and Times of Malcolm X
Aired 4 February 2024
Experience Anthony Davis’s groundbreaking opera directed by Tony nominee Robert O’Hara. The new staging portrays Malcolm as an Everyman whose story transcends time and space. Supported by a cast of young Met stars, Will Liverman sings Malcolm X.
10. The LA Phil Celebrates Frank Gehry
Aired 16 February 2024 • 85 min
Celebrate 20 years at Walt Disney Concert Hall with the LA Phil in a tribute to its architect. Led by Gustavo Dudamel, the concert includes a piece composed and conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, performances by Herbie Hancock and H.E.R., and more.
11. George Jones: Still Playin’ Possum
Aired 23 February 2024 • 85 min
Honoring one of the most influential, storied and beloved country music icons in history, Great Performances – George Jones: Still Playin’ Possum is an all-star celebration. Jones’ hits including “I Don’t Need Your Rockin’ Chair,” “The Race Is On,” “He Stopped Loving Her Today” and many more are performed by Travis Tritt, Tanya Tucker, Brad Paisley, Jelly Roll, Dierks Bentley, Sam Moore, Wynonna, Jamey Johnson, Uncle Kracker, Trace Adkins, Lorrie Morgan, Joe Nichols and other country stars accompanied by a band of Nashville’s top players. Recorded April 25, 2023, at from the Von Braun Center in Huntsville, Alabama, the tribute marked the 10th anniversary of Jones’ passing.
12. Great Performances at the Met: Dead Man Walking
Aired 15 March 2024
13. Great Performances at the Met: Florencia en el Amazonas
Aired 7 April 2024
14. Now Hear This
Aired 12 April 2024
15. Now Hear This
Aired 19 April 2024
16. Now Hear This
Aired 26 April 2024
17. Now Hear This
Aired 3 May 2024
18. Great Performances at the Met: Nabucco
Aired 5 May 2024
19. Hamlet
Aired 10 May 2024 • 154 min
20. Audra McDonald at the London Palladium
Aired 17 May 2024 • 83 min
21. Purlie Victorious
Aired 24 May 2024 • 106 min
A three-act comedic stage play tells the fictional story of Reverend Purlie Victorious Judson, a dynamic traveling preacher returning to his hometown in rural Georgia, to save his small hometown church. The Performance was filmed at the Music Box Theatre on January 23rd, 2024 with the original 2023 Broadway cast.
22. Rodgers & Hammerstein's 80th Anniversary
Aired 31 May 2024 • 116 min