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Great Performances

  • Watchlist
  • 1971-2026
  • 53 Seasons
  • PBS
  • Comedy, Drama, Music
  • TV-G
  • Watchlist

Great Performances brings the best in the performing arts from across America and around the world to a US television audience. It presents a diverse programming portfolio of classical music, opera, popular song, musical theater, dance, drama, and performance documentaries.

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Cast & Crew See All

Scott Yoo
Self - Host
Julie Andrews
Self - Host
Plácido Domingo
Self

Season 53 Episode Guide See All

Episode 1

The Magic of Grace Bumbry

Fri, Oct 3, 202554 mins

'The Magic of Grace Bumbry' recounts the story of the African American Missouri native who rose to fame in the 1960s international opera scene. Bumbry's rise began in the 1950s when she won a radio competition at the age of 17. Encountering racism when she was prevented from studying at the St. Louis Institute of Music, she nevertheless achieved international renown with her breakthrough performance in Wagner's "Tannhäuser" at the 1961 Bayreuth Festival, in which she appeared for 40 performances. The film explores Grace Bumbry's groundbreaking career, featuring performances from her early career leading up to her role in the 1966 Salzburg Festival production of "Carmen," directed by German conductor Herbert von Karajan.

Where to Watch

Featured Video

Sondheim! The Birthday Concert
Sondheim! The Birthday Concert
1:07
Watch Now

1:07 Sondheim! The Birthday Concert

Trailers & Videos See All

Sondheim! The Birthday Concert
1:07
Sondheim! The Birthday Concert (Songs In All Languages)
1:25
Great Performances: Andrew Lloyd Webber's Royal Albert Hall Celebration
0:41
Great Performances: Chita Rivera
1:30

Awards

  • 2000 - Daytime Emmy - Outstanding Special Class Special - nominated
  • 1993 - Grand Jury Prize - Documentary - nominated
  • 2010 - Actor - Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries - nominated
  • 1989 - WGA Award (TV) - Anthology Episode/Single Program - winner

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Latest News See All

Weekend TV Review: Give These Shows a Medal!

While the Olympians continue to dominate the TV spotlight in Sochi, another gathering of championship talent takes a bow in the weekend's other gold-medal event: PBS's Great Performances presentation of National Theatre: 50 Years on Stage (Friday, 9/8c, check tvguide.com listings).Laurence Olivier led the National Theatre upon its founding in 1963, and he and other luminaries are seen in vintage clips from past productions, interspersed throughout a dazzling evening of live re-enactments and tantalizing excerpts from landmark plays, including Angels in America, Stuff Happens, The History Boys and War Horse. Fans of Downton Abbey will delight to see the Dowager Countess Maggie Smith in her 1964 prime, vamping in ...

Fri, Feb 14, 2014
Weekend TV Review: Give These Shows a Medal!

The Weekend Playlist: Dead Popular, 40 Years of Great Performances

Is "I've Got You Under My Skin" the most appropriate sweet nothing to croon in the skin-crawling world of AMC's The Walking Dead? No matter, because there's not much of a lull in Sunday's powerful episode (9/8c), ominously titled "Infected." Which suggests the virus that felled Nerd Boy last week creates a bloody panic in the cell block, reminding us how illusory any notion of safety can be. "I haven't seen anybody be lucky in a long time," former Army medic Bob Stookey (new regular Lawrence Gilliard Jr.) observes as a full gamut of courage, terror and anguish is displayed during and after the latest crisis. Earning special bonus stripes this week: Melissa McBride as the awesome Carol, who takes a few distraught girls under her wing, but not to coddle them: "You want to live, you have to become strong" is her mantra. Meanwhile, the walkers keep pressing up against the prison gates and the audience can't get enough of the riveting mayhem, as evidenced by the record numbers who turned out for last Sunday's premiere.

Fri, Oct 18, 2013
The Weekend Playlist: Dead Popular, 40 Years of Great Performances

The Weekend Playlist: Walking Dead Is Back, and So Is Homeland's Brody

It's raining zombies, quite literally, by the end of the first hour of The Walking Dead's fourth harrowing season (Sunday, 9/8c, AMC). And when it rains, it pours blood. Just how fans like it. But it's in the pauses between the gruesome action, those eerie and unsettling silences, when we're reminded there's no rest for the living in a treacherous world where swarming walkers are constantly pressing against the prison-shelter gates, insatiable and relentless. In these quieter moments, Dead reinforces its claim as TV's greatest horror drama by making us care so desperately about the characters' humanity.

Fri, Oct 11, 2013
The Weekend Playlist: Walking Dead Is Back, and So Is Homeland's Brody

Matt's Guide to Weekend TV: Wallander, Dinosaurs on Doctor Who, and More

In the tradition of all great detectives, Swedish bundle-of-brooding Kurt Wallander can't escape crime no matter where he goes — and that includes the country home he is just moving into with his lady love as the first of three new Wallander movies kicks off a third season on Masterpiece Mystery! (Sunday, PBS, check tvguide.com listings).

Fri, Sep 7, 2012
Matt's Guide to Weekend TV: Wallander, Dinosaurs on Doctor Who, and More

Weekend TV in Review: Fringe Exits, Being Human Returns, Walking Dead and More

So much coming and going in the volatile, fragile world of fantasy/horror TV. Once again, we're bidding adieu to Fox's freaky Fringe (Friday, 9/8c) for a month.

Fri, Feb 24, 2012
Weekend TV in Review: Fringe Exits, Being Human Returns, Walking Dead and More

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