NaN/100 votes#1 - Richard II
Season 41 Episode 1 - Aired 9/20/2013
Witness Ben Whishaw’s performance as Richard in this television adaptation of Shakespeare’s play.
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NaN/100 votes#2 - Henry IV Part 1
Season 41 Episode 2 - Aired 9/27/2013
Jeremy Irons and Tom Hiddleston star in the Shakespeare's history play.
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NaN/100 votes#3 - Henry IV Part 2
Season 41 Episode 3 - Aired 10/4/2013
Jeremy Irons and Tom Hiddleston star in Shakespeare's history play.
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NaN/100 votes#4 - Henry V
Season 41 Episode 4 - Aired 10/11/2013
Henry V has settled onto the throne and has the makings of a fine King. The French Ambassador brings a challenge from the French Dauphin. Inspired by his courtiers, including Exeter and York, Henry swears that he will, with all force, answer this challenge. The Chorus tells of England’s preparations for war and Henry’s army sails for France. After Exeter’s diplomacy is rebuffed by the French King, Henry lays a heavy siege and captures Harfleur. The French now take Henry’s claims seriously and challenge the English army to battle at Agincourt. Henry and his meager forces prove victorious against all odds.
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8.5/1013 votes#5 - Great Performances 40th Anniversary Celebration
Season 41 Episode 5 - Aired 10/18/2013
In celebration of the series’ 40th anniversary on PBS, a stellar roster of diverse alumni gather to share their stories of what the series has meant to them, with reminiscences and performances by Julie Andrews, Audra McDonald, Don Henley, David Hyde Pierce, Josh Groban, Itzhak Perlman, Peter Martins, Patti Austin and Take 6, Elīna Garanča, and Michael Bublé.
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7.8/1014 votes#6 - San Francisco Opera's Moby Dick
Season 41 Episode 6 - Aired 11/1/2013
Composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer’s award-winning opera Moby-Dick will be broadcast on THIRTEEN’s Great Performances Friday, November 1, 2013 at 9 p.m. Jay Hunter Morris stars as the obsessive Captain Ahab in Leonard Foglia’s multimedia production with the San Francisco Opera.
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NaN/100 votes#7 - Company with the New York Philharmonic
Season 41 Episode 7 - Aired 11/8/2013
The New York Philharmonic’s concert staging of Stephen Sondheim’s award-winning musical Company includes the all-star cast of Craig Bierko, Stephen Colbert, Jon Cryer, Katie Finneran, Neil Patrick Harris, Christina Hendricks, Adam Lazar, Patti LuPone, Jill Paice, Martha Plimpton, Anika Noni Rose, Jennifer Laura Thompson, Jim Walton, and Chryssie Whitehead.
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NaN/100 votes#8 - Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Oklahoma!"
Season 41 Episode 8 - Aired 11/15/2013
Directed by Sir Trevor Nunn, and choreographed by Susan Stroman, the acclaimed Royal National Theatre production starring Hugh Jackman in his breakout role as cowpoke Curly reveals the work’s emotional complexity with a fresh approach. The special encore telecast is presented for the first time in high definition.
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NaN/100 votes#9 - Barbra Streisand: Back to Brooklyn
Season 41 Episode 9 - Aired 11/29/2013
The legendary Barbra Streisand makes a historic homecoming to Brooklyn at the new Barclays Center arena, marking the superstar’s first Brooklyn concert since her childhood years.
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6.8/1013 votes#10 - Pavarotti: A Voice for the Ages
Season 41 Episode 10 - Aired 11/30/2013
This one-hour program airing in late November and December is dedicated to the great tenor, Luciano Pavarotti. It includes his performances of “Nessun Dorma” and other beloved arias from La Boheme, Rigoletto and Aida. See Pavarotti in some of his finest performances and in duet with Sting, Bono, Eric Clapton, and The Three Tenors.
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NaN/100 votes#11 - From Vienna: The New Year's Celebration 2014
Season 41 Episode 11 - Aired 1/1/2014
Julie Andrews hosts this annual New Year's Day celebration with the Vienna Philharmonic. Daniel Barenboim conducts a program of melodies by the Strauss family and their contemporaries. The City Palace (Stadtpalais Liechtenstein), which has returned to all its former glory after a renovation, is the setting for both of the Vienna State Ballet’s interludes featuring costumes by Vivienne Westwood.
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7.8/1019 votes#12 - Great Performanes at the Met: Eugene Onegin
Season 41 Episode 12 - Aired 1/17/2014
Tchaikovsky’s romantic tragedy Eugene Onegin, starring Anna Netrebko, Mariusz Kwiecien, and Piotr Beczala, is the season premiere of THIRTEEN’s Great Performances at the Met. This past fall, Anna Netrebko opened her third consecutive Met season — which will mark her ninth Great Performances at the Met broadcast — in her company role debut as Tatiana, the naïve heroine from Pushkin’s classic novel.
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#13 - Barrymore
Season 41 Episode 13 - Aired 1/31/2014
John Barrymore (Christopher Plummer) banters with his line prompter Frank before beginning a rehearsal of "Richard III," in which he tries to remember the lines that once made him famous.
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NaN/100 votes#14 - National Theatre: 50 Years on Stage
Season 41 Episode 14 - Aired 2/14/2014
The National Theatre in London celebrates its 50th anniversary with a cast of theater legends, including Maggie Smith, Ralph Fiennes, Judi Dench, Benedict Cumberbatch, Derek Jacobi, Helen Mirren, Michael Gambon, Penelope Wilton and more.
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NaN/100 votes#15 - Sting: The Last Ship
Season 41 Episode 15 - Aired 2/21/2014
Watch highlights from Sting's live performance of "The Last Ship" at the Public Theater in New York City. The 16-time Grammy Award-winning musician and his band perform songs from his new album, "The Last Ship," and from the forthcoming play of the same name in an intimate evening of music and storytelling.
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NaN/100 votes#16 - Great Performances at the Met: The Nose
Season 41 Episode 16 - Aired 2/23/2014
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.
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NaN/100 votes#17 - Donald Fagen, Michael McDonald, Boz Scaggs as Dukes of Sept.
Season 41 Episode 17 - Aired 3/1/2014
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.
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NaN/100 votes#18 - Steve Martin and The Sheep Canyon Rangers ft Edie Brickell
Season 41 Episode 18 - Aired 3/1/2014
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.
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NaN/100 votes#19 - Bob Dylan: The 30th Anniversary Celebration Concert
Season 41 Episode 19 - Aired 3/1/2014
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."
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NaN/100 votes#20 - Great Performances at the Met: Tosca
Season 41 Episode 20 - Aired 3/9/2014
Tosca, Puccini’s favorite opera, stars an exceptional trio of singing actors. Acclaimed American soprano Patricia Racette plays the ultimate diva, Floria Tosca, in Luc Bondy‘s production. French tenor Roberto Alagna sings Tosca’s lover, the painter Cavaradossi, and Georgian baritone George Gagnidze is the corrupt, lustful Scarpia.
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NaN/100 votes#21 - The Dave Clark Five and Beyond - Glad All Over
Season 41 Episode 21 - Aired 4/8/2014
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.
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#22 - Great Performances at the Met: Falstaff
Season 41 Episode 22 - Aired 4/13/2014
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.
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NaN/100 votes#23 - Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty
Season 41 Episode 23 - Aired 4/25/2014
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.
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NaN/100 votes#24 - Great Performances at the Met: Rusalka
Season 41 Episode 24 - Aired 5/18/2014
Renée Fleming sings one of her signature roles, the title character in Dvořák'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.
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NaN/100 votes#25 - Great Performances at the Met: Prince Igor
Season 41 Episode 25 - Aired 6/22/2014
Borodin's Russian epic Prince Igor, performed by the Met for the first time in nearly 100 years. 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.
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The Best Episodes of Great Performances Season 41
Every episode of Great Performances Season 41 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of Great Performances Season 41!
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...
Genres:ComedyDocumentaryDrama
Network:PBS
Season 41 Ratings Summary
"Richard II" is the best rated episode of "Great Performances" season 41. It scored N/A/10 based on 0 votes. Directed by N/A and written by N/A, it aired on 9/20/2013. This episode is rated NaN points higher than the second-best, "Henry IV Part 1".