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The Best Episodes of Great Performances Season 39

Every episode of Great Performances Season 39 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of Great Performances Season 39!

The Best Episodes of Great Performances Season 39

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...
  1. Background image for Let Them Talk: A Celebration of New Orleans Blues
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    #1 - Let Them Talk: A Celebration of New Orleans Blues

    S39:E1

    An American favorite for his award-winning role in the hit TV series House, the versatile British actor Hugh Laurie showcases his musical side in an atmospheric personal odyssey filmed on location in New Orleans.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  2. Background image for Andrea Bocelli: Live in Central Park
    8.0/10(20 votes)

    #2 - Andrea Bocelli: Live in Central Park

    S39:E2

    Beloved tenor Andrea Bocelli performs a free concert on Central Park's Great Lawn, with the New York Philharmonic conducted by its music director Alan Gilbert. Joining Bocelli on stage on this memorable night are Celine Dion, Tony Bennett, Chris Botti and David Foster.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  3. Background image for The Little Mermaid from San Francisco Ballet
    7.5/10(1.3k votes)

    #3 - The Little Mermaid from San Francisco Ballet

    S39:E3

    John Neumeier -- director and chief choreographer for Hamburg Ballet -- blends dance, dramatic storytelling and spectacle into a unique interpretation of a classic Hans Christian Andersen’s tale. With choreography, sets, costumes, and lighting, all by Neumeier, this ballet—as much theater as it is dance—takes the dancers into deep emotional terrain.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  4. Background image for From Vienna: The New Year's Celebration 2012
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    #4 - From Vienna: The New Year's Celebration 2012

    S39:E4

    No description available

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  5. Background image for Herbie Hancock, Gustavo Dudamel and the LA PHIL Celebrate
    7.1/10(12 votes)

    #5 - Herbie Hancock, Gustavo Dudamel and the LA PHIL Celebrate

    S39:E5

    Herbie Hancock, Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Phil Celebrate Gershwin, featuring that classic piece as well as "An American in Paris" and Hancock's unique improvisation on the great standard "Someone to Watch Over Me."

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  6. Background image for Let Me Down Easy
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    #6 - Let Me Down Easy

    S39:E6

    Anna Deavere Smith's latest production, Let Me Down Easy. The Great Performances production was recorded in February 2011 in the Kreeger Theater at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater in Washington, DC, launching a national tour that concluded in September.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
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  8. Background image for Great Performances at the Met: Anna Bolena
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    #7 - Great Performances at the Met: Anna Bolena

    S39:E7

    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.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  9. Background image for Tony Bennett: Duets II
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    #8 - Tony Bennett: Duets II

    S39:E8

    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.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  10. Background image for Memphis
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    #9 - Memphis

    S39:E9

    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.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  11. Background image for Great Performances at the Met: Don Giovanni
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    #10 - Great Performances at the Met: Don Giovanni

    S39:E10

    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.

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    Director:Unknown
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  12. Background image for The Thomashefskys
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    #11 - The Thomashefskys

    S39:E11

    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.

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    Director:Unknown
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  13. Background image for The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall
    8.1/10(34 votes)

    #12 - The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall

    S39:E12

    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.

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    Director:Unknown
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  14. Background image for Great Performances at the Met: Satyagraha
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    #13 - Great Performances at the Met: Satyagraha

    S39:E13

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

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    Director:Unknown
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  15. Background image for San Francisco Symphony at 100
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    #14 - San Francisco Symphony at 100

    S39:E14

    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.

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    Director:Unknown
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  16. Background image for Great Performances at the Met: Rodelinda
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    #15 - Great Performances at the Met: Rodelinda

    S39:E15

    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.

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    Director:Unknown
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  17. Background image for Great Performances at the Met: Faust
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    #16 - Great Performances at the Met: Faust

    S39:E16

    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.

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    Director:Unknown
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  18. Background image for Great Performances at the Met: The Enchanted Island
    8.8/10(91 votes)

    #17 - Great Performances at the Met: The Enchanted Island

    S39:E17

    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.

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    Director:Unknown
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  19. Background image for Great Performances at the Met: Ernani
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    #18 - Great Performances at the Met: Ernani

    S39:E18

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

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    Director:Unknown
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  20. Background image for Great Performances at the Met: Manon
    8.4/10(15 votes)

    #19 - Great Performances at the Met: Manon

    S39:E19

    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.

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    Director:Unknown
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  21. Background image for Tanglewood 75th Anniversary Celebration
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    #20 - Tanglewood 75th Anniversary Celebration

    S39:E20

    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.

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    Director:Unknown
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  22. Background image for Jackie Evancho: Music of the Movies
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    #21 - Jackie Evancho: Music of the Movies

    S39:E21

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

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    Director:Unknown
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  23. Background image for Great Performances at the Met: La Traviata
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    #22 - Great Performances at the Met: La Traviata

    S39:E22

    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.

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  24. Background image for Vienna Philharmonic Summer Night Concert 2012
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    #23 - Vienna Philharmonic Summer Night Concert 2012

    S39:E23

    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.”

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  25. Background image for Great Performances at the Met: Wagner's Dream
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    #24 - Great Performances at the Met: Wagner's Dream

    S39:E24

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

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Season 39 Ratings Summary

"Let Them Talk: A Celebration of New Orleans Blues" is the best rated episode of "Great Performances" season 39. It scored /10 based on 0 votes. Directed by Unknown and written by Unknown, it aired on 9/30/2011. This episode is rated 8.0 points higher than the second-best, "Andrea Bocelli: Live in Central Park".