Great Performances on PBS Premieres Bernstein’s “Mass” with Marin Alsop and Berg’s “Wozzeck” with Christian Van Horn & Tamara Mumford

Great Performances at the Met premieres Berg’s tragic apocalyptic tale, Wozzeck on Sunday, May 3 at 12 p.m. EST on PBS. Baritone Peter Mattei stars as Wozzeck alongside soprano Elza van den Heever as Marie. Tenor Christopher Ventris as the Drum-Major, mezzo-soprano Tamara Mumford as Margret, bass-baritone Christian Van Horn as the Doctor, and tenor Gerhard Siegel as the Captain complete the cast. Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts.

Then on Friday, May 15 at 9 p.m. EST, Great Performances presents Leonard Bernstein Mass filmed in 2019 at the Ravinia Festival. Featuring 200 artists the production embraces elements of musical theater, folk and rock music with Latin text from the liturgy, as well as music and lyrics by Bernstein and additional text by “Wicked” composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz. Tony Award-winning baritone Paulo Szot stars as the Celebrant, and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra music director and Bernstein protégé Marin Alsop conducts the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The choral ensemble Vocality, the Chicago Children’s Choir, and the Highland Park High School Marching Band also perform. Chicago Tribune critic Howard Reich called the production “simply quintessential, stylistically unbound, anything-goes Bernstein, presented on the grandest scale possible.”

Throughout its more than 40-year history on PBS, Great Performances has provided viewers across the country with an unparalleled showcase of the best in all genres of the performing arts, serving as America’s most prestigious and enduring broadcaster of cultural programming. The series is available for streaming simultaneously on all station-branded PBS platforms, including PBS.org and the PBS Video app. Additional classical music programming is available to stream on demand now at pbs.org/gperf and the PBS Video app.