The WORST episodes of Great Performances
Every episode of Great Performances ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst episodes of Great Performances!
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 - Feasting With Panthers
Season 2 - Episode 9 - Aired 3/27/1974
#2 - The Rimers of Eldritch
Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 11/4/1972
A backwater Iowa town is in ethical turmoil after the sexual assult of a teenage girl and murder trial.
#3 - Hogan's Goat
Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 2/12/1973
#4 - Enemies
Season 2 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/23/1974
Maxim Gorky’s drama about social unrest in prerevolutionary Russia, performed by members of the Repertory Theater of Lincoln Center and directed by Ellis Rabb. With Peter Donat, Frances Sternhagen, Carrie Nye, Kate Reid, Susan Sharkey, and Mr. Rabb.
#5 - June Moon
Season 2 - Episode 2 - Aired 1/30/1974
The 1929 comedy by George S. Kaufman and Ring Lardner. Marks the acting debut of the composer Stephen Sondheim. Also features Jack Cassidy, Estelle Parsons, and Kevin McCarthy. Bert Shevelove directs.
#6 - Cyrano de Bergerac
Season 2 - Episode 3 - Aired 2/6/1974
#7 - Antigone
Season 2 - Episode 4 - Aired 2/13/1974
#8 - Bernstein's Mass
Season 2 - Episode 6 - Aired 2/27/1974
#9 - Paradise Lost
Season 2 - Episode 7 - Aired 3/6/1974
#10 - In Fashion
Season 2 - Episode 8 - Aired 3/13/1974
#11 - Andrea Bocelli Live in Central Park
Season 39 - Episode 30 - Aired 12/2/2011
The program: La Forza del Destino Ouverture Alan Gilbert, New York Philharmonic “La donna ė mobile” (Rigoletto) Andrea Bocelli “Di quella pira” (Il Trovatore) Andrea Bocelli “Va Tosca! (Te Deum)” (Tosca) Bryn Terfel, Choir “Ave Maria ‘Ellens dritter Gesang’” Andrea Bocelli “Vicino a te s’acqueta” (Andrea Chenier) Andrea Bocelli, Ana Maria Martinez “Au fond du temple saint” (Les Pêcheurs de Perles) Andrea Bocelli, Bryn Terfel “O Soave Fanciulla” (La Bohème) Andrea Bocelli, Pretty Yende “Libiano ne’lieti calici” (La Traviata) Andrea Bocelli, Pretty Yende, Choir “Home on the Range” Bryn Terfel, Choir “En Aranjuez con tu amor” Andrea Bocelli, Nicola Benedetti (violin) “’O Sole Mio” Andrea Bocelli, Choir “Once Upon a Time in the West” Andrea Bocelli Andrea Bocelli, David Foster, Chris Botti (trumpet) “Volare” Andrea Bocelli, David Foster “The Prayer” Andrea Bocelli, Celine Dion, David Foster “New York, New York” Andrea Bocelli, Tony Bennett “Amazing Grace” Andrea Bocelli, Choir “Time to Say Goodbye” Andrea Bocelli, Ana Maria Martinez, Choir “Nessun Dorma” (Turandot) (encore) Andrea Bocelli, Choir Bocelli’s performance was the latest in a rich tradition of memorable free concerts in Central Park which, over the years, has included such notable performers as Barbra Streisand, Simon and Garfunkel, Diana Ross, Garth Brooks, Bob Marley and the Wailers, and Bon Jovi.
#12 - A Memory of Two Mondays
Season 2 - Episode 10 - Aired 4/3/1974
#13 - The Contractor
Season 2 - Episode 11 - Aired 4/10/1974
#14 - Bach's Mass in B Minor
Season 2 - Episode 12 - Aired 4/12/1974
#15 - Ceremony of Innocence
Season 2 - Episode 13 - Aired 4/17/1974
#16 - A Touch of the Poet
Season 2 - Episode 14 - Aired 4/24/1974
#17 - The Widowing of Mrs. Holroyd
Season 2 - Episode 15 - Aired 5/8/1974
#18 - Monkey, Monkey, Bottle of Beer, How Many Monkeys Have We Here?
Season 2 - Episode 16 - Aired 5/22/1974
#19 - Concertgebouw Orchestra: Rubinstein
Season 3 - Episode 1 - Aired 10/16/1974
#20 - The Hollow Crown: Richard II
Season 41 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/20/2013
King Richard is called upon to settle a dispute between his cousin, Henry Bolingbroke, and Thomas Mowbray. Richard calls for a duel but then halts it just before swords clash. Both men are banished from the realm. Richard visits John of Gaunt, Bolingbroke’s Father, who, in the throes of death, reprimands the King. After seizing Gaunt’s money and lands, Richard leaves for wars against the rebels in Ireland. Bolingbroke returns to claim back his inheritance. Supported by his allies, Northumberland and the Duke of York, Bolingbroke takes Richard prisoner and lays claim to the throne.
#21 - Great Performances at the Met: Les Troyens
Season 40 - Episode 21 - Aired 6/30/2013
Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi leads a rare revival of Berlioz’s epic Les Troyens, based on Virgil’s Aeneid. Bryan Hymel stars as Aeneas, the Trojan hero. Deborah Voigt sings Cassandra, the Trojan prophetess who tries to warn her countrymen of the dangers about to befall them, and Susan Graham makes her Met role debut as Dido, the Carthaginian queen who gives her heart to Aeneas with disastrous consequences.
#22 - Great Performances at the Met: Maria Stuarda
Season 40 - Episode 22 - Aired 7/14/2013
The Metropolitan Opera's first-ever production of Gaetano Donizetti's historical opera ``Maria Stuarda'' stars Joyce DiDonato as Mary, Queen of Scots.
#23 - Follies in Concert
Season 14 - Episode 10 - Aired 3/14/1986
The incomparable Stephen Sondheim brought his sensational "Follies" to the stage in 1971 where it was hailed as "monumental theater" by The New York Times.
#24 - Vienna Philharmonic Summer Night 2013
Season 40 - Episode 25 - Aired 8/2/2013
Lorin Maazel conducts the Vienna Philharmonic's spring concert saluting Richard Wagner and Giuseppi Verdi; featuring tenor Michael Schade.
#25 - Dancing at Jacob's Pillow: Never Stand Still
Season 40 - Episode 23 - Aired 7/26/2013
Archival footage, performances and interviews with choreographers and dancers at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in Becket, Mass.