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 such as Toscanini: The Maestro, 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.

The program's spin-off, Great Performances: Dance In America, which began on PBS in 1976, concentrates solely on dance, featuring such performers as Mikhail Baryshnikov. Although it is not seen as often as previously, there have recently been new Dance in America programs, such as the Emmy-winning 2005 production of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, starring Angel Corella, Gillian Murphy and the American Ballet Theatre.

In 2007, Great Performances began rebroadcasting performances from the Metropolitan Opera Live in HD series.

Repeat guest hosts include Walter Cronkite, Julie Andrews and Whoopi Goldberg.

Major underwriters throughout the show's run included: The National Endowment for the Arts, The Corporation for Public Broadcasting,PBS viewers, Exxon, Martin Marietta, Texaco, Deluxe Corporation, Duracell, Ernst & Young, Chase Manhattan Bank and UBS.

References

1. Comprehensive IMDb listing of awards
2. PBS: Great Performances: Opera on Film

External links

• Great Performances Guide at TV.Com
• PBS: Great Performances