POIROT

APPOINTMENT WITH DEATH

FRIDAY, JUNE 10 @ 7:30PM & 12:30AM

Impassioned archaeologist Lord Greville Boynton, accompanied by his universally despised wealthy second wife Lady Boynton, is in zealous pursuit of a major artifact in Syria. A curious array of onlookers has also gathered in the unforgiving desert heat — among them the tormented Boynton children, a psychiatrist, a nun, a travel writer and a cerebral but not exactly rugged Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot. When most of the camp returns from an expedition, they find Lady Boynton has been stabbed to death. How can Poirot make sense of a murder when most of the suspects weren’t even present at the time of death?

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GREAT PERFORMANCES AT THE MET

NIXON IN CHINA

THURSDAY, JUNE 2 @ 12:00AM

The Metropolitan Opera’s premiere production of John Adams’ Nixon in China, conducted by the composer and staged by internationally acclaimed director Peter Sellars, will air in primetime on Great Performances at the Met Wednesday, June 1 at 7:00 p.m. ET and 11:00pm. In New York, THIRTEEN will present an encore broadcast on Sunday, June 5 at 12:30 p.m. The program was originally seen live in movie theaters on February 12, 2011 as part of the groundbreaking series, The Met: Live in HD, which transmits live performances to more than 1500 movie theaters and performing arts centers in 46 countries around the world.

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CARNEGIE HALL 120TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT

TUESDAY, MAY 31 @ 6:00PM & 9:00PM

On May 5, 2011, Carnegie Hall will commemorate its 120th anniversary with an all-star gala concert featuring conductor Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic and special guests pianist Emanuel Ax, cellist Yo-Yo Ma,  violinist Gil Shaham, and the four-time Tony Award-winning singer and actress Audra McDonald.

Carnegie Hall 120th Anniversary Concert — featuring the works of Ludwig von Beethoven, Duke Ellington, Antonin Dvořák, and George Gershwin — will air as part of Great Performances on Tuesday, May 31, 2011.
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AMERICAN EXPERIENCE

WAR LETTERS

SATURDAY, JUNE 4 @ 7:00PM

In every American war from the Revolutionary War to the Persian Gulf War, American military men and women have captured the horror, pathos and intensity of warfare by writing letters home. Tens of thousands of these letters have been handed down from generation to generation. Using the most compelling and enlightening of these missives, War Letters tells the story of American wars from the viewpoint of the men and women in the front lines.
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SECRETS OF THE PARTHENON

WEDNESDAY, MAY 25 @ 7:00PM & 10:00PM

For 25 centuries the Parthenon has been shot at, set on fire, rocked by earthquakes, looted for its sculptures, almost destroyed by explosion, and disfigured by well-meaning renovations. It has gone from temple, to church, to mosque, to munitions dump. What could be next? How about a scientific search for the secrets of its incomparable beauty and astonishingly rapid construction? With unprecedented access, NOVA unravels the architectural and engineering mysteries of this celebrated ancient temple.

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WELCOME TO SHELBYVILLE

TUESDAY, MAY 24 @ 8:00PM & 11:00PM

Welcome to Shelbyville is a glimpse of America at a crossroads. In this one small town in the heart of America’s Bible Belt, a community grapples with rapidly changing demographics. Just a stone’s throw away from Pulaski, Tennessee (the birthplace of the Ku Klux Klan), longtime African American and white residents are challenged with how best to integrate with a growing Latino population and the more recent arrival of hundreds of Muslim Somali refugees.

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THE TRIALS OF J. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER

MONDAY, MAY 23 @ 7:00PM & 10:00PM

J. Robert Oppenheimer was brilliant, arrogant, proud, charismatic — and a national hero. Under his leadership during World War II, the United States succeeded in becoming the first nation to harness the power of nuclear energy to create the ultimate weapon of mass destruction — the atomic bomb. But after the bomb brought the war to an end, in spite of his renown and his enormous achievement, America turned on him, humiliated him and cast him aside. The question this film asks is, “Why?”

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THE SILVER PHARAOH

WEDNESDAY, JULY 3 @ 8:00PM

Tanis, Egypt, circa 1939. On the brink of World War II, an excavation team led by French archaeologist Pierre Montet unearthed an intact royal burial chamber containing treasures that rival the riches found in Tutankhamun’s tomb almost two decades before. But while the Tut discovery created an international sensation, the opening of the tomb in Tanis made barely a ripple in a world focused on impending war.

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