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 (24)
1. Émigré: A Musical Drama with the NY Phil
Aired 25 October 2024 • 105 min
Enjoy this semi-staged oratorio with the New York Philharmonic and an international cast telling the story of Jewish refugees in World War II Shanghai set to music by Aaron Zigman with lyrics by Mark Campbell and additional lyrics by Brock Walsh.
2. Land of Gold
Aired 1 November 2024 • 74 min
Explore Peter Sellars' San Francisco Opera production of John Adams' "Girls of the Golden West" set during Gold Rush. Go behind the scenes with cast members Julia Bullock, J'Nai Bridges and others as they bring the show to life on stage.
3. Patsy Cline: Walkin' After Midnight
Aired 22 November 2024 • 83 min
Experience the music of Patsy Cline in a star-studded tribute concert featuring Wynonna and more.
4. Henry Mancini 100 at the Hollywood Bowl
Aired 29 November 2024 • 76 min
Celebrate the centennial birthday of composer Henry Mancini with Michael Bublé, Cynthia Erivo, saxophonist Dave Koz, Monica Mancini and host Jeff Goldblum featuring Mancini’s signature songs and clips from his beloved movies and TV shows.
5. From Vienna: The New Year’s Celebration 2025
Aired 1 January 2025 • 85 min
Experience this annual beloved concert from the Golden Hall of the Musikverein celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Johann Strauss. Conducted by Riccardo Muti for the seventh time, PBS favorite Hugh Bonneville returns to host.
6. Movies for Grownups® Awards 2025 with AARP The Magazine
Aired 23 February 2025 • 114 min
Iconic and beloved screen and stage performer Alan Cumming returns as host for this awards show in which Glenn Close receives the Career Achievement Award.
7. Andrea Bocelli 30th – The Celebration
Aired 28 February 2025 • 84 min
Experience the world-renowned Italian tenor’s 30th anniversary concert from Tuscany featuring global superstars Ed Sheeran, David Foster, Katharine McPhee, Sofia Carson, Brian May, Jon Batiste and more. Directed by Grammy nominee and Emmy winner Sam Wrench.
8. Great Performances at the Met: Grounded
Aired 21 March 2025 • 165 min
Follow a fighter pilot who operates a drone in a high-tech world battling both war and motherhood. With pressures from every angle, she balances being the perfect soldier, wife and mother. Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Michael Mayer's staging.
9. Now Hear This “Chopin’s Polish Heart”
Aired 11 April 2025 • 54 min
Follow Scott Yoo and pianist Jan Lisiecki as they explore Chopin’s life, his Polish roots, and his journey to Paris taking a closer look at the composer's musical evolution and his deep connection to his homeland while living in France.
10. The Magic of Nureyev
Aired 11 April 2025 • 54 min
Experience Rudolf Nureyev’s revolutionary 1964 production of "Swan Lake" with ballerina Margot Fonteyn through extensive excerpts and interviews with their fellow dancers Michael Birkmeyer, Gisela Cech and others as they analyze Nureyev’s virtuosity.
11. Great Performances at the Met: Les Contes d’Hoffmann
Aired 13 April 2025 • 255 min
Benjamin Bernheim performs the title role of the tormented poet for Offenbach’s final work. Hoffmann’s trio of lovers are sung by Erin Morley as the mechanical doll Olympia, Pretty Yende as the plagued diva Antonia, and Clémentine Margaine as the Venetian seductress Giulietta.
12. Now Hear This "Boccherini: Night Music"
Aired 18 April 2025 • 54 min
Join Scott Yoo and musicians on a night tour of Madrid to uncover Boccherini’s deep love for the city and learn how his iconic "Night Music of the Streets of Madrid" was inspired by his time in Spain, blending history and the pulse of the streets.
13. Now Hear This: Rachmaninoff Reborn
Aired 25 April 2025 • 55 min
Follow Rachmaninoff’s journey from a Russian aristocrat to an American artist after the Bolshevik revolution. Forced to rebuild at 44, he embraced modern technology, toured extensively and reinvented his career while longing for his lost homeland.
14. Now Hear This "Barrios: Chopin of the Guitar"
Aired 2 May 2025 • 55 min
Explore Agustin Barrios’ journey from rural Paraguay to global recognition as a guitar composer. Despite facing rejection and personal struggles, his innovative compositions and passion for Latin American folk music made him a 20th-century icon.
15. Next to Normal
Aired 9 May 2025 • 129 min
Experience this Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway musical directed by Michael Longhurst from London's Donmar Warehouse. Grammy nominee Caissie Levy stars in the story of a suburban family struggling with the effects of mental illness.
16. Yellow Face
Aired 16 May 2025 • 106 min
Enjoy Tony winner David Henry Hwang’s comedy starring Daniel Dae Kim as an Asian American playwright who protests “yellowface” casting in the musical “Miss Saigon” only to mistakenly cast a white actor as the Asian lead in his own play.
17. Great Performances at the Met: Tosca
Aired 18 May 2025 • 126 min
Lise Davidsen stars in the title role alongside Freddie De Tommaso in his company debut as her lover Cavaradossi with Quinn Kelsey as the chief of police Scarpia. Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts.
18. Girl from the North Country
Aired 23 May 2025 • 134 min
Experience 20 reimagined, legendary Bob Dylan songs including “Forever Young,” “Hurricane,” and “Like A Rolling Stone" in this musical set in 1934 Minnesota where a group of travelers’ lives intersect in a guesthouse filled with music, life and hope.
19. Kiss Me, Kate
Aired 30 May 2025 • 150 min
Enjoy this Cole Porter classic musical featuring iconic songs like “Another Op'nin', Another Show," “So In Love” and more. Tony winner Stephanie J. Block and Adrian Dunbar co-star in a backstage romantic comedy directed by Bartlett Sher.
20. Great Performances at the Met: Aida
Aired 13 June 2025 • 157 min
Angel Blue makes her highly anticipated Met role debut as Aida, the Ethiopian princess torn between love and country. Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin takes the podium of Michael Mayer’s staging, featuring intricate projections of ancient Egypt and animations.
21. Great Performances at the Met: Fidelio
Aired 13 July 2025 • 147 min
In her second role of this season of Great Performances at the Met, Lise Davidsen stars as Leonore, who risks everything to save her husband from the clutches of tyranny. David Butt Philip is the political prisoner Florestan, sharing the stage with Tomasz Konieczny as the villainous Don Pizarro, René Pape as the jailer Rocco, and Ying Fang as Marzelline.
22. Great Performances at the Met: Le Nozze di Figaro
Aired 17 August 2025 • 179 min
Conductor Joana Mallwitz makes her Met debut leading the cast in Mozart’s comic masterpiece. Michael Sumuel is the clever valet Figaro opposite Olga Kulchynska as his betrothed, the wily maid Susanna. Joshua Hopkins plays the skirt-chasing Count, Federica Lombardi portrays his anguished wife, and Marianne Crebassa takes on the role of the adolescent page Cherubino.
23. Vienna Philharmonic Summer Night Concert 2025
Aired 29 August 2025 • 126 min
The beloved annual concert performed by Vienna Philharmonic takes place in Schönbrunn Palace Park and is conducted for the first time by Maestro Tugan Sokhiev.
24. Great Performances at the Met: Salome
Aired 14 September 2025 • 150 min
The first new production of the opera at the Met in 20 years, director Claus Guth reimagines the biblical tale through Oscar Wilde’s haunting play, setting it in an intricate Victorian world filled with symbolism and contrasts of darkness and light. Headlining the new staging is Elza van den Heever as the abused and unhinged antiheroine Salome, who demands the head of Jochanaan.