The BEST episodes of Great Performances season 52
Every episode of Great Performances season 52, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Great Performances season 52!
Great Performances, a television series devoted to the performing arts, has been telecast on PBS since 1972. The show is produced by WNET in New York City. It is one of the longest running performing arts anthologies on television, second only to Hallmark Hall of Fame. Great Performances presents concerts, ballet, opera, an occasional documentary, and plays. The series has also won many television awards, including an Emmy Award, a Peabody Award, and an Image Award, with nods from the Directors Guild of America and the Cinema Audio Society.
#1 - Yellow Face
Season 52 - Episode 16 - Aired 5/16/2025
Tony-winning playwright David Henry Hwang's comedy from Roundabout Theatre Company stars Daniel Dae Kim ("Lost," "Hawaii Five-0") as an Asian American playwright who protests yellowface casting in the blockbuster musical "Miss Saigon," only to mistakenly cast a white actor as the Asian lead in his own play. The repercussions resonate in this farce about the complexities of race. Filmed in November 2024 and directed by Leigh Silverman ("Violet," "Suffs"), "Yellow Face" is an "is-he-or-isn't-he" comedy of identity, show business and autobiography.
#2 - Next to Normal
Season 52 - Episode 15 - Aired 5/9/2025
This three-time Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical stars Caissie Levy (Broadway’s “Frozen”), Jamie Parker (Broadway’s “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child”), Jack Wolfe (Netflix’s “Shadow & Bone”) and Eleanor Worthington-Cox. An intimate portrait of a modern family, the show explores illness, loss, grief and family as a suburban wife and mother lives with bipolar disorder and is haunted by her past. Filmed at Wyndham’s Theatre in September 2024 during the show’s West End transfer from its original run at the Donmar Warehouse, the musical is produced by David Stone (“Wicked”), staged by director Michael Longhurst and features an original rock score by Tom Kitt with book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey.
#3 - Now Hear This “Chopin’s Polish Heart”
Season 52 - Episode 9 - Aired 4/11/2025
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.
#4 - Now Hear This "Barrios: Chopin of the Guitar"
Season 52 - Episode 14 - Aired 5/2/2025
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.
#5 - Kiss Me, Kate
Season 52 - Episode 19 - Aired 5/30/2025
Cole Porter musical features hits like "Another Op'nin', Another Show" and "So In Love." Stars Stephanie J. Block and Adrian Dunbar in a backstage romance directed by Bartlett Sher.
#6 - Vienna Philharmonic Summer Night Concert 2025
Season 52 - Episode 23 - Aired 8/29/2025
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.
#7 - The Magic of Nureyev
Season 52 - Episode 10 - Aired 4/11/2025
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.
#8 - Now Hear This "Rachmaninoff Reborn"
Season 52 - Episode 13 - Aired 4/25/2025
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.
#9 - Andrea Bocelli 30th – The Celebration
Season 52 - Episode 7 - Aired 2/28/2025
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.
#10 - Now Hear This "Boccherini: Night Music"
Season 52 - Episode 12 - Aired 4/18/2025
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.
#11 - Patsy Cline: Walkin' After Midnight
Season 52 - Episode 3 - Aired 11/22/2024
Experience the music of Patsy Cline in a star-studded tribute concert featuring Wynonna and more.
#12 - Movies for Grownups® Awards 2025 with AARP The Magazine
Season 52 - Episode 6 - Aired 2/23/2025
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.
#13 - From Vienna: The New Year’s Celebration 2025
Season 52 - Episode 5 - Aired 1/1/2025
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.
#14 - Henry Mancini 100 at the Hollywood Bowl
Season 52 - Episode 4 - Aired 11/29/2024
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.
#15 - Land of Gold
Season 52 - Episode 2 - Aired 11/1/2024
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.
#16 - Émigré: A Musical Drama with the NY Phil
Season 52 - Episode 1 - Aired 10/25/2024
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.
#17 - Great Performances at the Met: Grounded
Season 52 - Episode 8 - Aired 3/21/2025
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.
#18 - Great Performances at the Met: Les Contes d’Hoffmann
Season 52 - Episode 11 - Aired 4/13/2025
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.
#19 - Girl from the North Country
Season 52 - Episode 18 - Aired 5/23/2025
In 1934 Duluth, Minnesota, a group of wayward travelers' lives intersect in a guesthouse filled with music, life and hope. Written and directed by celebrated playwright Conor McPherson and featuring Tony Award-winning orchestrations by Simon Hale, the musical features 20 reimagined, legendary Bob Dylan songs, including 'Forever Young,' 'All Along the Watchtower,' 'Hurricane,' and 'Like A Rolling Stone.
#20 - Great Performances at the Met: Tosca
Season 52 - Episode 17 - Aired 5/18/2025
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.
#21 - Great Performances at the Met: Aida
Season 52 - Episode 20 - Aired 6/13/2025
Angel Blue makes her highly anticipated Met debut as Aida.
#22 - Great Performances at the Met: Fidelio
Season 52 - Episode 21 - Aired 7/13/2025
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.
#23 - Great Performances at the Met: Le Nozze di Figaro
Season 52 - Episode 22 - Aired 8/17/2025
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.
#24 - Great Performances at the Met: Salome
Season 52 - Episode 24 - Aired 9/14/2025
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.