Live from the Met

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Live from the Met, telecast on PBS, has been television's prime source of opera since 1977.^{[citation needed]} It was telecast live for its first few seasons, but its title was eventually changed to The Metropolitan Opera Presents, and there was no more indication that it was actually broadcast live. It still airs from time to time on PBS.

The show offers telecasts of complete operas, broadcast in color, from the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center. During its first few years, which were, apparently, truly "live", the program featured interviews and essays on operas during the intermissions, which often lasted nearly half-an-hour in themselves. The switchover from live to taped telecasts has enabled the producers to cut down drastically on the intermission time.

Live from the Met has enabled millions of people in the United States to see, as well as hear, complete performances of the world's great operatic masterpieces performed by the world's most famous opera company. Because the operas are given in front of a live audience, much of the excitement of actually being there is felt during the telecasts. The program has featured such stars as Plácido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti, Beverly Sills, Samuel Ramey, Renée Fleming, Joan Sutherland, Marilyn Horne, Sherrill Milnes and others in complete performances of many of their greatest operatic roles. During its first fifteen years or so, the program was frequently simulcast, which meant that many could tune in their FM classical music stations and hear the sound from the telecast in full stereo while seeing the picture on their TV screens.