The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager. As of 2018, the company's current music director is Yannick Nézet-Séguin. The Met was founded in 1883 as an alternative to the previously established Academy of Music opera house, and debuted the same year in a new building on 39th and Broadway (now known as the "Old Met"). It moved to the new Lincoln Center location in 1966. The Metropolitan Opera is the largest

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...

organization in North America. Until 2019, it presented about 27 different operas each year from late September through May. The operas are presented in a rotating repertory schedule, with up to seven performances of four different works staged each week. Performances are given in the evening Monday through Saturday with a matinée on Saturday. Several operas are presented in new productions each season. Sometimes these are borrowed from or shared with other opera companies. The rest of the year's operas are given in revivals of productions from previous seasons. The 2015–16 season comprised 227 performances of 25 operas. The operas in the Met's repertoire consist of a wide range of works, from 18th-century

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

and 19th-century

Bel canto Bel canto (Italian for "beautiful singing" or "beautiful song", )—with several similar constructions (''bellezze del canto'', ''bell'arte del canto'')—is a term with several meanings that relate to Italian singing. The phrase was not associat ...

to the

Minimalism In visual arts, music and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in post–World War II in Western art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. Prominent artists associated with minimalism include Don ...

of the late 20th and 21st century. These operas are presented in staged productions that range in style from those with elaborate traditional decors to others that feature modern conceptual designs. The Met's performing company consists of a large symphony orchestra, a chorus, children's choir, and many supporting and leading solo singers. The company also employs numerous free-lance dancers, actors, musicians and other performers throughout the season. The Met's roster of singers includes both international and American artists, some of whose careers have been developed through the Met's young artists programs. While many singers appear periodically as guests with the company, others maintain a close long-standing association with the Met, appearing many times each season until they retire.

History

Origins

The Metropolitan Opera Company was founded in 1883 as an alternative to New York's old established Academy of Music opera house. The subscribers to the Academy's limited number of private boxes represented the highest stratum in New York society. By 1880, these "

old money Old money is "the inherited wealth of established upper-class families (i.e. gentry, patriciate)" or "a person, family, or lineage possessing inherited wealth". The term typically describes a social class of the rich who have been able to ma ...

" families were loath to admit New York's newly wealthy

industrialist A business magnate, also known as a tycoon, is a person who has achieved immense wealth through the ownership of multiple lines of enterprise. The term characteristically refers to a powerful entrepreneur or investor who controls, through perso ...

s into their long-established

social circle In the social sciences, a social group can be defined as two or more people who interact with one another, share similar characteristics, and collectively have a sense of unity. Regardless, social groups come in a myriad of sizes and varieties ...

. Frustrated with being excluded, the Metropolitan Opera's founding subscribers determined to build a new opera house that would outshine the old Academy in every way. A group of 22 men assembled at Delmonico's restaurant on April 28, 1880. They elected officers and established subscriptions for ownership in the new company. The new theater, built at 39th and Broadway, would include three tiers of private boxes in which the scions of New York's powerful new industrial families could display their wealth and establish their social prominence. The first Met subscribers included members of the

Morgan Morgan may refer to: People and fictional characters * Morgan (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Morgan le Fay, a powerful witch in Arthurian legend * Morgan (surname), a surname of Welsh origin * Morgan (singer), ...

, Roosevelt, and Vanderbilt families, all of whom had been excluded from the Academy. The new Metropolitan Opera House opened on October 22, 1883, and was an immediate success, both socially and artistically. The Academy of Music's opera season folded just three years after the Met opened.

Inaugural season

In its early decades the Met did not produce the opera performances itself but hired prominent manager/ impresarios to stage a season of opera at the new Metropolitan Opera House.

Henry Abbey Henry Abbey (July 11, 1842 – June 7, 1911) was an American poet who is best remembered for the poem, "What do we plant when we plant a tree?" He is also known for "The Bedouin's Rebuke". Biography Abbey was born in Rondout (now a part of Ki ...

served as manager for the inaugural season, 1883–84, which opened with a performance of Charles Gounod's '' Faust'' starring the brilliant Swedish soprano

Christina Nilsson Christina Nilsson, Countess de Casa Miranda, also called Christine Nilsson (20 August 1843 – 22 November 1921) was a Swedish dramatic coloratura soprano. Possessed of a pure and brilliant voice of first three then two and a half octaves tra ...

. Abbey's company that first season featured an ensemble of artists led by sopranos Nilsson and Marcella Sembrich; mezzo-soprano

Sofia Scalchi Sofia Scalchi (November 29, 1850 – August 22, 1922) was an Italian operatic contralto who could also sing in the mezzo-soprano range. Her career was international, and she appeared at leading theatres in both Europe and America. Singing ...

; tenors

Italo Campanini Italo Campanini (June 30, 1845 – November 14, 1896) was a leading Italian operatic tenor, whose career reached its height in London in the 1870s and in New York City in the 1880s and 1890s. He had a repertoire of 80 operas and was the brother o ...

and

Roberto Stagno Roberto Stagno (; 18 October 1840 ome sources give 1836 as his birth year – 26 April 1897) was a prominent Italian opera tenor. He became an important interpreter of verismo music when it burst on to the operatic scene during the 1890s; ...

; baritone

Giuseppe Del Puente Giuseppe Del Puente (January 30, 1841 – May 25, 1900) was an Italian baritone, who played in important role in operatic life in the United States in the 19th century, as he was its first baritone star singer, the first performer of many standa ...

; and bass Franco Novara. They gave 150 performances of 20 different operas by Gounod, Meyerbeer, Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi, Wagner, Mozart, Thomas, Bizet, Flotow, and Ponchielli. All performances were sung in Italian and were conducted either by music director

Auguste Vianesi Auguste Charles Léonard François Vianesi (2 November 1837 – 4 November 1908) was an opera conductor, born in Italy and later naturalised French. His repertoire consisted mostly of French and Italian opera, in which he directed some of the world' ...

Cleofonte Campanini Cleofonte Campanini (1 September 1860 – 19 December 1919) was an Italian conductor. His brother was the tenor Italo Campanini. Biography Born in Parma, Italy on 1 September 1860, Campanini studied music at that city's conservatory, making his ...

(the tenor Italo's brother). The company performed not only in the new Manhattan opera house, but also started a long tradition of touring throughout the country. In the winter and spring of 1884 the Met presented opera in theaters in Brooklyn, Boston, Philadelphia (see below), Chicago, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Washington D.C., and Baltimore. Back in New York, the last night of the season featured a long gala performance to benefit Mr. Abbey. The special program consisted not only of various scenes from opera, but also offered Marcella Sembrich playing the violin and the piano, as well as the famed stage actors Henry Irving and Ellen Terry in a scene from Shakespeare's '' The Merchant of Venice''. Abbey's inaugural season resulted in very large financial deficits.

''The Met in Philadelphia''

The Metropolitan Opera began a long history of performing in Philadelphia during its first season, presenting its entire repertoire in the city during January and April 1884. The company's first Philadelphia performance was of ''Faust'' (with Christina Nilsson) on January 14, 1884, at the

Chestnut Street Opera House The chestnuts are the deciduous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Castanea'', in the beech family Fagaceae. They are native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The name also refers to the edible nuts they produce. The unrelated ...

. The Met continued to perform annually in Philadelphia for nearly eighty years, taking the entire company to the city on selected Tuesday nights throughout the opera season. Performances were usually held at Philadelphia's Academy of Music, with the company presenting close to 900 performances in the city by 1961 when the Met's regular visits ceased. On April 26, 1910, the Met purchased the Philadelphia Opera House from Oscar Hammerstein I. The company renamed the house the Metropolitan Opera House and performed all of their Philadelphia performances there until 1920, when the company sold the theater and resumed performing at the Academy of Music. During the Met's early years, the company annually presented a dozen or more opera performances in Philadelphia throughout the season. Over the years the number of performances was gradually reduced until the final Philadelphia season in 1961 consisted of only four operas. The final performance of that last season was on March 21, 1961, with

Birgit Nilsson Märta Birgit Nilsson (17 May 1918 – 25 December 2005) was a celebrated Swedish dramatic soprano. Although she sang a wide répertoire of operatic and vocal works, Nilsson was best known for her performances in the operas of Richard Wagner a ...

and

Franco Corelli Franco Corelli (8 April 1921 – 29 October 2003) was an Italian tenor who had a major international opera career between 1951 and 1976. Associated in particular with the spinto and dramatic tenor roles of the Italian repertory, he was cel ...

in '' Turandot''. After the Tuesday night visits were ended, the Met still returned to Philadelphia on its spring tours in 1967, 1968, 1978, and 1979.

German seasons

For its second season, the Met's directors turned to Leopold Damrosch as general manager. The revered conductor of the

New York Symphony Orchestra The New York Symphony Orchestra was founded as the New York Symphony Society in New York City by Leopold Damrosch in 1878. For many years it was a rival to the older Philharmonic Symphony Society of New York. It was supported by Andrew Carnegie, ...

was engaged to lead the opera company in an all German language repertory and serve as its chief conductor. Under Damrosch, the company consisted of some the most celebrated singers from Europe's German-language opera houses. The new German Met found great popular and critical success in the works of Wagner and other German composers as well as in Italian and French operas sung in German. Damrosch died only months into his first season at the Met. Edmund Stanton replaced Damrosch the following year and served as general manager through the 1890–91 season. The Met's six German seasons were especially noted for performances by the celebrated conductor Anton Seidl whose Wagner interpretations were noted for their almost mystical intensity. The conductor

Walter Damrosch Walter Johannes Damrosch (January 30, 1862December 22, 1950) was a German-born American conductor and composer. He was the director of the New York Symphony Orchestra and conducted the world premiere performances of various works, including Ge ...

, Leopold's son, also initiated a long relationship with the Met during this period.

''Mapleson Cylinders''

From 1900 to 1904, Lionel Mapleson (1865–1937) made a series of sound recordings at the Met. Mapleson, the nephew of the opera impresario James Henry Mapleson, was employed by the Met as a violinist and music librarian. He used an

Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These invention ...

cylinder

phonograph A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

set-up near the stage to capture short, one- to five-minute recordings of the soloists, chorus and orchestra during performances. These unique acoustic documents, known as the

Mapleson Cylinders The Mapleson Cylinders are a group of about 140 phonograph cylinders recorded live at the Metropolitan Opera House, primarily between 1901 and 1903, by the Met librarian Lionel Mapleson (a nephew of impresario James Henry Mapleson). The cylinder ...

, preserve an audio picture of the early Met, and are the only known extant recordings of some performers, including the tenor Jean de Reszke and the dramatic soprano Milka Ternina. The recordings were later issued on a series of LPs and, in 2002, were included in the National Recording Registry.While many of the cylinders became greatly worn over the years, some remain comparatively clear, particularly those of the waltz and "Soldier's Chorus" from ''Faust'' and the triumphal scene from Act 2 of ''Aida''. Mapleson placed his machine in various locations, including the prompter's box, the side of the stage, and in the "flies", which enabled him to record the singers and musicians, as well as the audience's applause. Many of the original cylinders are preserved in the Rodgers & Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

Annual spring tour

Beginning in 1898, the Metropolitan Opera company of singers and musicians undertook a six-week tour of American cities following its season in New York. These annual spring tours brought the company and its stars to cities throughout the U.S., most of which had no opera company of their own. The Met's national tours continued until 1986.

Administrations

Abbey, Schoeffel, and Grau

Italian opera returned to the Met in 1891 in a glittering season of stars organized by the returning Henry E. Abbey, John B. Schoeffel and Maurice GrauUntitled obituary:
''The New York Times'', March 15, 1907 as

Abbey, Schoeffel and Grau Abbey, Schoeffel and Grau was a US theatre management and production firm, active from 1880 until 1896. The partners were Henry E. Abbey, John B. Schoeffel and Maurice Grau. Abbey and Schoeffel had been in partnership since 1876, and joined force ...

. After missing a season to rebuild the opera house following a fire in August 1892 which destroyed most of the theater, Abbey and Grau continued as co-managers along with John Schoeffel as the business partner, initiating the so-called "Golden Age of Opera". Most of the greatest operatic artists in the world then graced the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House in Italian as well as German and French repertory. Notable among them were the brothers Jean and Édouard de Reszke, Lilli Lehmann, Emma Calvé,

Lillian Nordica Lillian Nordica (December 12, 1857 – May 10, 1914) was an American opera singer who had a major stage career in Europe and her native country. Nordica established herself as one of the foremost dramatic sopranos of the late 19th and early 20t ...

, Nellie Melba, Marcella Sembrich, Milka Ternina,

Emma Eames Emma Eames (August 13, 1865 – June 13, 1952) was an American first dramatic soprano, later lyric soprano renowned for the beauty of her voice. She sang major lyric and lyric-dramatic roles in opera and had an important career in New York ...

, Ernestine Schumann-Heink,

Francesco Tamagno Francesco Tamagno (28 December 1850 – 31 August 1905) was an Italian operatic tenor who sang with enormous success throughout Europe and America.Warrack, John and West, Ewan (1992), ''The Oxford Dictionary of Opera'', 782 pages, On 5 February ...

Francesc Viñas Francesc Viñas i Dordal (27 March 1863 – 14 July 1933) was a Spanish operatic tenor. He is also known by the Spanish version of his name, Francisco Viñas and the Italian version, Francesco Vignas. He was particularly known for his performance ...

, Jean Lassalle,

Mario Ancona Mario Ancona (28 February 1860 – 23 February 1931), was a leading Italian baritone and master of bel canto singing. He appeared at some of the most important opera houses in Europe and America during what is commonly referred to as the "Golde ...

, Victor Maurel,

Antonio Scotti Antonio Scotti (25 January 1866 – 26 February 1936) was an Italian baritone. He was a principal artist of the New York Metropolitan Opera for more than 33 seasons, but also sang with great success at London's Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, a ...

and

Pol Plançon Pol Henri Plançon (; 12 June 1851 – 11 August 1914) was a distinguished French operatic bass (''basse chantante''). He was one of the most acclaimed singers active during the 1880s, 1890s and early 20th century—a period often referred to as ...

. Henry Abbey died in 1896, and Maurice Grau continued as sole manager of the Met from 1896 to 1903. The early 1900s saw the development of distinct Italian, German and later French "wings" within the Met's roster of artists including separate German and Italian choruses. This division of the company's forces faded after World War II when solo artists spent less time engaged at any one company.

Heinrich Conried

The administration of

Heinrich Conried Heinrich Conried (September 3, 1855 – April 27, 1909) was an Austrian and naturalized American theatrical manager and director. Beginning his career as an actor in Vienna, he took his first post as theater director at the Stadttheater Bremen i ...

in 1903–08 was distinguished especially by the arrival of the Neapolitan tenor

Enrico Caruso Enrico Caruso (, , ; 25 February 1873 – 2 August 1921) was an Italian operatic first lyrical tenor then dramatic tenor. He sang to great acclaim at the major opera houses of Europe and the Americas, appearing in a wide variety of roles (74) ...

, the most celebrated singer who ever appeared at the old Metropolitan. He was also instrumental in hiring conductor

Arturo Vigna Arturo is a Spanish and Italian variant of the name Arthur. People *Arturo Álvarez (footballer, born 1985), American-born Salvadoran footballer * Arturo Álvarez (footballer, born 1959), Mexican footballer * Arthuro Henrique Bernhardt (b. 1982), B ...

Giulio Gatti-Casazza

Conried was followed by Giulio Gatti-Casazza, who held a 27-year tenure from 1908 to 1935. Gatti-Casazza had been lured by the Met from a celebrated tenure as director of Milan's La Scala Opera House. His model planning, authoritative organizational skills and brilliant casts raised the Metropolitan Opera to a prolonged era of artistic innovation and musical excellence. He brought with him the fiery and brilliant conductor

Arturo Toscanini Arturo Toscanini (; ; March 25, 1867January 16, 1957) was an Italian conductor. He was one of the most acclaimed and influential musicians of the late 19th and early 20th century, renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orch ...

, the music director from his seasons at La Scala. Metropolitan Opera Schedule March 22-29, 1935

Many of the most noted singers of the era appeared at the Met under Gatti-Casazza's leadership, including sopranos Rosa Ponselle,

Elisabeth Rethberg Elisabeth Rethberg ( Lisbeth Sättler; 22 September 1894 – 6 June 1976) was a German operatic soprano singer who was active from the period of the First World War through the early 1940s. Early years Rethberg was born Lisbeth Sättler in ...

, Maria Jeritza, Emmy Destinn, Frances Alda,

Frida Leider Frida Leider (18 April 1888 – 4 June 1975) was a German operatic soprano. Leider was a dramatic soprano. Her most famous roles were Wagner's Isolde and Brünnhilde, Beethoven's Fidelio, Mozart's Donna Anna, and Verdi's Aida and Leonora. She ...

Amelita Galli-Curci Amelita Galli-Curci (18 November 1882 – 26 November 1963) was an Italian coloratura soprano. She was one of the most popular operatic singers of the 20th century, with her recordings selling in large numbers. Early life She was born as Am ...

Bernice de Pasquali Bernice de Pasquali (December 7, 1873 – April 3, 1925), born Bernice James, was an American coloratura soprano singer and pianist. She sang with the Metropolitan Opera from 1908 to 1917, and was the first American woman elected to membership i ...

, and Lily Pons; tenors Jacques Urlus, Giovanni Martinelli,

Beniamino Gigli Beniamino Gigli ( , ; 20 March 1890 – 30 November 1957) was an Italian opera singer (lyric tenor). He is widely regarded as one of the greatest tenors of his generation. Early life Gigli was born in Recanati, in the Marche, the son of a shoem ...

, Giacomo Lauri-Volpi, and Lauritz Melchior; baritones Titta Ruffo,

Giuseppe De Luca Giuseppe De Luca (25 December 1876 – 26 August 1950), was an Italian baritone who achieved his greatest triumphs at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. He notably created roles in the world premieres of two operas by Giacomo Puccini: Sha ...

, Pasquale Amato, and Lawrence Tibbett; and basses

Friedrich Schorr Friedrich Schorr (September 2, 1888 – August 14, 1953), was a renowned Austrian- Hungarian bass-baritone opera singer of Jewish origin. He later became a naturalized American. Schorr was particularly famous for his profound portrayals o ...

, Feodor Chaliapin, Jose Mardones,

Tancredi Pasero Tancredi Pasero (11 January 1893 in Turin – 17 February 1983 in Milan) was an Italian bass who enjoyed a long and distinguished singing career in his native country and abroad. Career & recordings After studying with the baritone Arturo ...

and Ezio Pinza—among many others. Toscanini served as the Met's principal conductor (but with no official title) from 1908 to 1915, leading the company in performances of Verdi, Wagner and others that set standards for the company for decades to come. The Viennese composer

Gustav Mahler Gustav Mahler (; 7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was an Austro-Bohemian Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and the modernism ...

also was a Met conductor during Gatti-Casazza's first two seasons and in later years conductors Tullio Serafin and Artur Bodanzky led the company in the Italian and German repertories respectively. Artur Bodanzky at the Metropolitan Opera in 1915

Artur Bodanzky at the Metropolitan Opera in 1915

Following Toscanini's departure, Gatti-Casazza successfully guided the company through the years of World War I into another decade of premieres, new productions and popular success in the 1920s. The 1930s, however, brought new financial and organizational challenges for the company. In 1931,

Otto Kahn Otto Hermann Kahn (February 21, 1867 – March 29, 1934) was a German-born American investment banker, collector, philanthropist, and patron of the arts. Kahn was a well-known figure, appearing on the cover of ''Time'' magazine and was sometimes ...

, the noted financier, resigned as head of the Met's board of directors and president of the Metropolitan Opera Company. He had been responsible for engaging Gatti-Casazza and had held the position of president since the beginning of Gatti-Casazza's term as manager. The new chair, prominent lawyer

Paul Cravath Paul Drennan Cravath (July 14, 1861 – July 1, 1940) was a prominent Manhattan lawyer and a partner of the New York law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore. He devised the Cravath System, was a leader in the Atlantist movement, and was a founding ...

, had served as the board's legal counsel. Retaining Gatti-Casazza as manager, Cravath focused his attention on managing the business affairs of the company. In 1926, as part of the construction of Rockefeller Center, a plan was floated to move the opera from the building on 39th Street to the new Rockefeller Center. The plan was dropped in 1929 when it became apparent that it would produce no savings, and because the Met did not have enough money to move to a new opera house. It soon became apparent that the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and subsequent depression had resulted in a dangerously large deficit in the company's accounts. Between 1929 and 1931 ticket sales remained robust, but subsidies from the Met's wealthy supporters had significantly declined. Bundesarchiv Bild 102-07682, Otto H

Soon after his appointment, Cravath obtained new revenue through a contract with the

National Broadcasting Company The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

for weekly radio broadcasts of Met performances. The first national broadcast took place December 25, 1931, when '' Hansel and Gretel'' was aired.See more on the national broadcasts in the ''Broadcast radio'' section below With Gatti's support, Cravath also obtained a ten percent reduction in the pay of all salaried employees beginning with the opera season of 1931/32. Cravath also engineered a reorganization of the management company by which it was transformed from a corporation, in which all participants were stockholders, to an association, whose members need not have a financial interest in operations. Apart from this change, the new Metropolitan Opera Association was virtually identical to the old Metropolitan Opera Company. It was hoped the association would be able to save money as it renegotiated contracts which the company had made. During this period there was no change in the organization of the Metropolitan Real Estate Opera Company which owned the opera house. It remained in the hands of the society families who owned its stock, yet the subsidies that the house and its owners had given the producing company fell off. In March 1932, Cravath found that income resulting from the broadcasts and savings from both salary cuts and reorganization were not sufficient to cover the company's deficits. Representatives of the opera house, the producing company, and the artists formed a committee for fundraising among the public at large. Mainly though appeals made to radio audiences during the weekly broadcasts, the committee was able to obtain enough money to assure continuation of opera for the 1933–34 season. Called the committee to Save Metropolitan Opera, the group was headed by the well-loved leading soprano, Lucrezia Bori. Bori not only led the committee, but also personally carried out much of its work and within a few months her fundraising efforts produced the $300,000 that were needed for the coming season.

Edward Johnson

In April 1935, Gatti stepped down after 27 years as general manager. His immediate successor, the former Met bass

Herbert Witherspoon Herbert Witherspoon (July 21, 1873 – May 10, 1935) was an American bass singer and opera manager. Biography He was born on July 21, 1873, in Buffalo, New York. He graduated from Yale University in 1895 where he had performed as a member o ...

, died of a heart attack barely six weeks into his term of office. This opened the way for the Canadian tenor and former Met artist Edward Johnson to be appointed general manager. Johnson served the company for the next 15 years, guiding the Met through the remaining years of the depression and the World War II era. The producing company's financial difficulties continued in the years immediately following the desperate season of 1933–34. To meet budget shortfalls, fundraising continued and the number of performances was curtailed. Still, on given nights the brilliant Wagner pairing of the Norwegian soprano Kirsten Flagstad with the great heldentenor Lauritz Melchior proved irresistible to audiences even in such troubled times. To expand the Met's support among its national radio audience, the Met board's Eleanor Robson Belmont, the former actress and wife to industrialist August Belmont, was appointed head of a new organization—the Metropolitan Opera Guild—as successor to a women's club Belmont had set up. The Guild supported the producing company through subscriptions to its magazine,

Opera News ''Opera News'' is an American classical music magazine. It has been published since 1936 by the Metropolitan Opera Guild, a non-profit organization located at Lincoln Center which was founded to engender the appreciation of opera and also support ...

, and through Mrs. Belmont's weekly appeals on the Met's radio broadcasts. In 1940 ownership of the performing company and the opera house was transferred to the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association from the company's original partnership of New York society families. Zinka Milanov, Jussi Björling, and

Alexander Kipnis Alexander Kipnis ( – May 14, 1978) was a Ukrainian-born operatic bass. Having initially established his artistic reputation in Europe, Kipnis became an American citizen in 1931, following his marriage to an American. He appeared often at the Ch ...

were first heard at the Met under Johnson's management. During World War II when many European artists were unavailable, the Met recruited American singers as never before. Eleanor Steber, Dorothy Kirsten, Helen Traubel (Flagstad's successor as Wagner's heroines),

Jan Peerce Jan Peerce (born Yehoshua Pinkhes Perelmuth; June 3, 1904 December 15, 1984) was an American operatic tenor. Peerce was an accomplished performer on the operatic and Broadway theatre, Broadway concert stages, in solo recitals, and as a recordi ...

, Richard Tucker, Leonard Warren and Robert Merrill were among the many home grown artists to become stars at the Met in the 1940s. Ettore Panizza, Sir Thomas Beecham, George Szell and Bruno Walter were among the leading conductors engaged during Johnson's tenure. Kurt Adler began his long tenure as chorus master and staff conductor in 1943.

Rudolf Bing

Succeeding Johnson in 1950 was the Austrian-born Rudolf Bing who had most recently created and served as director of the Edinburgh Festival. Serving from 1950 to 1972, Bing became one of the Met's most influential and reformist leaders. Bing modernized the administration of the company, ended an archaic ticket sales system, and brought an end to the company's Tuesday night performances in Philadelphia. He presided over an era of fine singing and glittering new productions, while guiding the company's move to a new home in Lincoln Center. While many outstanding singers debuted at the Met under Bing's guiding hand, music critics complained of a lack of great conducting during his regime, even though such eminent conductors as

Fritz Stiedry Fritz Stiedry (11 October 18838 August 1968) was an Austrian conductor and composer. Biography Fritz Stiedry was born in Vienna in 1883. While still a law student at the University of Vienna, Stiedry's talent for music was noticed by Gustav Mahl ...

, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Erich Leinsdorf, Fritz Reiner, and

Karl Böhm Karl August Leopold Böhm (28 August 1894 – 14 August 1981) was an Austrian conductor. He was best known for his performances of the music of Mozart, Wagner, and Richard Strauss. Life and career Education Karl Böhm was born in Graz. T ...

appeared frequently in the 1950s and '60s. Among the most significant achievements of Bing's tenure was the opening of the Met's artistic roster to include singers of color. Marian Anderson's historic 1955 debut was followed by the introduction of a gifted generation of African American artists led by Leontyne Price (who inaugurated the new house at Lincoln Center),

Reri Grist Reri Grist (born February 29, 1932) is an American coloratura soprano, one of the pioneer African-American singers to enjoy a major international career in opera. Biography Reri Grist was born in New York City, grew up in the East River Hous ...

, Grace Bumbry, Shirley Verrett, Martina Arroyo, George Shirley, Robert McFerrin, and many others. Other celebrated singers who debuted at the Met during Bing's tenure include: Roberta Peters,

Victoria de los Ángeles Victoria de los Ángeles López García (1 November 192315 January 2005) was a Catalan Spanish operatic lyric soprano and recitalist whose career began after the Second World War and reached its height in the years from the mid-1950s to the mid- ...

Renata Tebaldi Renata Tebaldi ( , ; 1 February 1922 – 19 December 2004) was an Italian lirico-spinto soprano popular in the post-war period, and especially prominent as one of the stars of La Scala, San Carlo and, especially, the Metropolitan Opera. O ...

Maria Callas Maria Callas . (born Sophie Cecilia Kalos; December 2, 1923 – September 16, 1977) was an American-born Greek soprano who was one of the most renowned and influential opera singers of the 20th century. Many critics praised her ''bel cant ...

, who had a bitter falling out with Bing over repertoire,,

Joan Sutherland Dame Joan Alston Sutherland, (7 November 1926 – 10 October 2010) was an Australian dramatic coloratura soprano known for her contribution to the renaissance of the bel canto repertoire from the late 1950s through to the 1980s. She possessed ...

Régine Crespin Régine Crespin (23 February 1927 – 5 July 2007) was a French singer who had a major international career in opera and on the concert stage between 1950 and 1989. She started her career singing roles in the dramatic soprano and spinto soprano ...

, Mirella Freni, Renata Scotto, Montserrat Caballé, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf,

Anna Moffo Anna Moffo (June 27, 1932 – March 9, 2006) was an American opera singer, television personality, and actress. One of the leading lyric- coloratura sopranos of her generation, she possessed a warm and radiant voice of considerable range and agil ...

James McCracken James McCracken (December 16, 1926 – April 29, 1988) was an American operatic tenor. At the time of his death ''The New York Times'' stated that McCracken was "the most successful dramatic tenor yet produced by the United States and a pill ...

Carlo Bergonzi Carlo Bergonzi may refer to: * Carlo Bergonzi (luthier) (1683–1747), Italian luthier * Carlo Bergonzi (tenor) Carlo Bergonzi (13 July 1924 – 25 July 2014) was an Italian operatic tenor. Although he performed and recorded some bel canto and ...

, Alfredo Kraus, Plácido Domingo, Nicolai Gedda,

Luciano Pavarotti Luciano Pavarotti (, , ; 12 October 19356 September 2007) was an Italian operatic tenor who during the late part of his career crossed over into popular music, eventually becoming one of the most acclaimed tenors of all time. He made numerou ...

, Jon Vickers, Tito Gobbi,

Sherrill Milnes Sherrill Milnes (born January 10, 1935) is an American dramatic baritone most famous for his Verdi roles. From 1965 until 1997 he was associated with the Metropolitan Opera. His voice is a high dramatic baritone, combining good legato with an inc ...

, and

Cesare Siepi Cesare Siepi (10 February 19235 July 2010) was an Italian opera singer, generally considered to have been one of the finest basses of the post-war period. His voice was characterised by a deep, warm timbre, a full, resonant, wide-ranging lower r ...

. The Met's 1961 production of '' Turandot'', with Leopold Stokowski conducting,

in the title role, and

as Calàf, was by May called the Met's "Biggest hit in 10 years." For the 1962/1963 season,

, popular with Met audiences, convinced a reluctant Bing to stage a revival of

Adriana Lecouvreur ''Adriana Lecouvreur'' () is an opera in four acts by Francesco Cilea to an Italian libretto by Arturo Colautti, based on the 1849 play ''Adrienne Lecouvreur'' by Eugène Scribe and Ernest Legouvé. It was first performed on 6 November 1902 at t ...

, an opera last presented at the Met in 1907. In 1963 Anthony Bliss, a prominent New York lawyer and president of the Metropolitan Opera Association (MOA), convinced the MOA to create the Metropolitan Opera National Company (MONC); a second touring company that would present operas nationally with young operatic talent. Supported by President John F. Kennedy and funded largely by donations given by philanthropist and publisher

Lila Acheson Wallace Lila Bell Wallace (December 25, 1889 – May 8, 1984) was an American magazine publisher and philanthropist. She co-founded ''Reader's Digest'' with her husband Dewitt Wallace, publishing the first issue in 1922. Early life and education Born Li ...

, the company presented two seasons of operas in 1965-1966 and 1966–1967 in which hundreds of performances were given in hundreds of cities throughout the United States. Bing publicly supported the organization, but privately detested the idea and actively worked to dismantle the company which he ultimately achieved in a vote of the board in December 1966. The MONC's directors were mezzo-soprano Risë Stevens and

Michael Manuel Michael Manuel (9 September 1928 – 5 April 1999) was an English opera director, set designer, stage manager, and screenwriter who was associated with the Metropolitan Opera. He is chiefly remembered for his work as director of the Metropolitan ...

, a long time stage manager and director at the Met. Several well known opera singers performed with the MONC, including sopranos

Clarice Carson Clarice Carson ( Katz; December 23, 1929 – May 2, 2015) was a Canadian soprano singer who made her name in opera from the 1950 to 1986. Born to Polish émigrés in Montreal, she sought to become a signer at an early age and made her public d� ...

Maralin Niska Maralin Niska (November 16, 1926 – July 9, 2016) was an American operatic soprano. Well known as a singing-actress, she was a mainstay of the New York City Opera during the 1960s and 1970s. She was also a regular performer at the Metropolitan Op ...

, Mary Beth Peil,

Francesca Roberto Francesca Roberto is an American operatic soprano. A winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, she sang leading roles throughout the United States during the 1960s and early 1970s. Life and career Raised in Greenwich, Connecticu ...

, and

Marilyn Zschau Marilyn Zschau (born February. 9, 1944) is an American operatic soprano. Born in Chicago, Zschau attended Juilliard School of Music in New York from 1961 to 1965. She first appeared in the role of Marietta in ''Die tote Stadt'' at the Vienna Vol ...

; mezzo-sopranos

Joy Davidson Joy Davidson (born August 18, 1937, Fort Collins, Colorado) is an American operatic mezzo-soprano, actress, and pedagogue. She has performed internationally in many of the world's great opera houses. Life and career A native of Fort Collins, Co ...

, Sylvia Friederich, Dorothy Krebill, and

Huguette Tourangeau Huguette Tourangeau, (August 12, 1938 – April 21, 2018) was a French-Canadian operatic mezzo-soprano, particularly associated with the French and Italian repertories. Life and career Huguette Tourangeau was born in Montreal, Quebec, and gra ...

; tenors

Enrico Di Giuseppe Enrico Di Giuseppe (October 14, 1932 – December 31, 2005) was a celebrated American operatic tenor who had an active performance career from the late 1950s through the 1990s. He spent most of his career performing in New York City, juggling ...

, Chris Lachona, Nicholas di Virgilio, and Harry Theyard; baritones

Ron Bottcher Ron Bottcher (11 May 1940 – 18 April 1991) was an American operatic baritone who was actively performing with both the New York City Opera (NYCO) and the Metropolitan Opera during the 1960s. A native of Sandpoint, Idaho, he earned music de ...

John Fiorito John Fiorito (born 4 September 1936 in New York) is a baritone opera singer. Career Fiorito began his classical training in 1952, with Rita Kittain and her associate, Lydia Chaliapin. He made his professional debut in 1957, with the Toledo Ch ...

Thomas Jamerson Thomas Jamerson is an American baritone who had an active international career as an opera and concert performer from the 1960s through the 1990s. He first drew distinction in the field of opera in 1968 when he recorded the role of Baron Douphol in ...

Julian Patrick Julian Patrick (26 October 1927 – 8 May 2009) was an American operatic baritone and voice teacher. Born in Mississippi, Patrick grew up in Birmingham, Alabama where he was a member of the Apollo Boys Choir. After graduating from the Cincinnati C ...

, and Vern Shinall; bass-baritones

Andrij Dobriansky Andrij Dobriansky ( uk, Андрій Добрянський; September 2, 1930February 1, 2012) was a principal artist with the Metropolitan Opera for 30 years where he sang over 60 roles in over 900 performances. As a displaced person in post-war ...

, Ronald Hedlund, and

Arnold Voketaitis Arnold and Nijole Voketaitis. Arnold Voketaitis (born May 11, 1930, New Haven, Connecticut) is an American bass-baritone of Lithuanian descent who had an active singing career performing in operas, concerts, and recitals from the late 1950s thr ...

; and bass

Paul Plishka Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) *Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chris ...

. During Bing's tenure, the officers of the Met joined forces with the officers of the New York Philharmonic to build the

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 millio ...

, where the new Metropolitan Opera House building opened in 1966. The Met's first season at Lincoln Center featured nine new productions, including the world premiere of

Marvin David Levy Marvin David Levy (August 2, 1932 – February 9, 2015) was an American composer, best known for his opera ''Mourning Becomes Electra''. ''Mourning Becomes Electra'' was given its world premiere at the Metropolitan Opera in 1967. Although deemed ...

’s ''

Mourning Becomes Electra ''Mourning Becomes Electra'' is a play cycle written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill. The play premiered on Broadway at the Guild Theatre on 26 October 1931 where it ran for 150 performances before closing in March 1932, starring Lee Baker ...

''. However, the company would not premiere any new operas for decades afterwards, until 1991's '' The Ghosts of Versailles'' by

John Corigliano John Paul Corigliano Jr. (born February 16, 1938) is an American composer of contemporary classical music. His scores, now numbering over one hundred, have won him the Pulitzer Prize, five Grammy Awards, Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition, an ...

. One critic described the period as "a quarter-century in which the notion of commissioned work reminded Met administrators of the emblematic failure of

Samuel Barber Samuel Osmond Barber II (March 9, 1910 – January 23, 1981) was an American composer, pianist, conductor, baritone, and music educator, and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century. The music critic Donal Henahan said, "Proba ...

's ''

Antony and Cleopatra ''Antony and Cleopatra'' (First Folio title: ''The Tragedie of Anthonie, and Cleopatra'') is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The play was first performed, by the King's Men, at either the Blackfriars Theatre or the Globe Theatre in around ...

'' and the lukewarm reception of Marvin David Levy's ''Mourning Becomes Electra''."

Gentele to Southern

Following Bing's retirement in 1972, the Met's management was overseen by a succession of executives and artists in shared authority. Bing's intended successor, the Swedish opera manager

Göran Gentele Göran Gentele (29 September 1917 – 18 July 1972) was a Swedish actor, director, and opera manager. He was briefly the general manager of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City in 1972. Biography Born in Stockholm, Gentele studied from 19 ...

, died in an auto accident before the start of his first season. Following Gentele's tragic loss came Schuyler Chapin, who served as general manager for three seasons. The greatest achievement of his tenure was the Met's first tour to Japan for three weeks in May–June 1975 which was the brainchild of impresario Kazuko Hillyer. The tour played a significant role in popularizing opera in Japan, and boasted an impressive line-up of artists in productions of ''

La traviata ''La traviata'' (; ''The Fallen Woman'') is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on ''La Dame aux camélias'' (1852), a play by Alexandre Dumas ''fils'' adapted from his own 18 ...

'', ''

Carmen ''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the Carmen (novella), novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first perfo ...

'', and '' La bohème''; including Marilyn Horne as Carmen,

as Violetta, and tenors

and

alternating as Rodolfo. Soprano

retired from the Met in 1973 as Desdemona in Verdi's ''

Otello ''Otello'' () is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Shakespeare's play ''Othello''. It was Verdi's penultimate opera, first performed at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, on 5 February 1887. Th ...

'', the same role she debuted there in 1955. From 1975 to 1981 the Met was guided by a triumvirate of directors: the General Manager (Anthony A. Bliss), Artistic Director ( James Levine), and Director of Production (English stage director John Dexter). Bliss was followed by Bruce Crawford and

Hugh Southern Hugh Southern was a performing arts manager, known for his work as the executive director of Theater Development Fund, acting chairman and deputy chairman of programs for the National Endowment for the Arts, Washington, D.C., and as the general m ...

. Through this period the constant figure was James Levine. Engaged by Bing in 1971, Levine became Principal Conductor in 1973 and emerged as the Met's principal artistic leader through the last third of the 20th century. During the 1983–84 season the Met celebrated its 100th anniversary with an opening night revival of Berlioz's mammoth opera ''

Les Troyens ''Les Troyens'' (; in English: ''The Trojans'') is a French grand opera in five acts by Hector Berlioz. The libretto was written by Berlioz himself from Virgil's epic poem the ''Aeneid''; the score was composed between 1856 and 1858. ''Les Tro ...

'', with soprano Jessye Norman making her Met debut in the roles of both Cassandra and Dido. An eight-hour Centennial Gala concert in two parts followed on October 22, 1983, broadcast on PBS. The gala featured all of the Met's current stars as well as appearances by 26 veteran stars of the Met's the past. Among the artists,

Leonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein ( ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first America ...

and Birgit Nilsson gave their last performances with the company at the concert. The immediate post-Bing era saw a continuing addition of African-Americans to the roster of leading artists. Kathleen Battle, who in 1977 made her Met debut as the Shepherd in Wagner's '' Tannhäuser'', became an important star in lyric soprano roles. Bass-baritone

Simon Estes Simon Estes (born March 2, 1938) is an operatic bass-baritone of African-American descent who had a major international opera career beginning in the 1960s. He has sung at most of the world's major opera houses as well as in front of presiden ...

began a prominent Met career with his 1982 debut as Hermann, also in ''Tannhäuser''.

Joseph Volpe

The model of General Manager as the leading authority in the company returned in 1990 when the company appointed Joseph Volpe. He was the Met's third-longest serving manager, and was the first head of the Met to advance from within the ranks of the company after having started his career there as a carpenter in 1964. During his tenure the Met's international touring activities were expanded and Levine focused on expanding and building the Met's orchestra into a world-class symphonic ensemble with its own Carnegie Hall concert series. Under Volpe the Met considerably expanded its repertory, offering four world premiers and 22 Met premiers, more new works than under any manager since Gatti-Casazza. Volpe chose Valery Gergiev, who was then the chief conductor and artistic director of the Mariinsky Theatre, as Principal Guest Conductor in 1997 and broadened the Met's Russian repertory.

Marcelo Álvarez Marcelo Raúl Álvarez (born February 27, 1962) is an Argentine lyric tenor who achieved international success starting in the mid-1990s. Álvarez travels widely, performing with top singers in major opera houses and concert halls around the wor ...

Gabriela Beňačková Gabriela Beňačková also Gabriela Beňačková-Čápová (born 25 March 1947) is a Slovak lyric soprano. Life and career Beňačková was born in Bratislava. Her father Antonín was a lawyer, and her mother Elena was a housewife. She is the ...

, Diana Damrau, Natalie Dessay, Renée Fleming, Juan Diego Flórez,

Marcello Giordani Marcello Giordani (born Marcello Guagliardo; 25 January 1963 – 5 October 2019) was an Italian operatic tenor who sang leading roles of the Italian and French repertoire in opera houses throughout Europe and the United States. He had a distinguis ...

, Angela Gheorghiu, Susan Graham,

Ben Heppner Thomas Bernard Heppner (born January 14, 1956) is a Canadian tenor and broadcaster, now retired from singing, who specialized in opera and other classical works for voice. Early life and career Heppner, of Mennonite descent, was born in Mur ...

, Dmitri Hvorostovsky,

Salvatore Licitra Salvatore Licitra (10 August 1968 – 5 September 2011) was an Italian operatic tenor. Early life and debuts Born in Bern, Switzerland, to Sicilian parents, Licitra grew up in Milan. He fell into opera by accident. As many tenors before him, he ...

Anna Netrebko Anna Yuryevna Netrebko (russian: Анна Юрьевна Нетребко; born 18 September 1971) is an Austrian operatic soprano with an active international career and performed prominently at the Salzburg Festival, Metropolitan Opera, Vienna ...

René Pape René Pape (born 4 September 1964) is a German operatic bass. Pape has received two Grammys, was named "Vocalist of the Year" by Musical America in 2002, "Artist of the Year" by the German opera critics in 2006, and won an ECHO award (the German ...

Neil Rosenshein Neil Rosenshein (born November 27, 1947 in New York City) is an American operatic tenor, who sang leading tenor roles in the major American and European opera houses. He created the roles of Aspern in Dominick Argento's '' The Aspern Papers'' and ...

, Bryn Terfel, and Deborah Voigt were among the artists first heard at the Met under his management. He retired as general manager in 2006.

Peter Gelb

Joseph Volpe's post was given to Peter Gelb, formerly a record producer. Gelb began outlining his plans in April 2006; these included more new productions each year, ideas for shaving staging costs, and attracting new audiences without deterring existing opera-lovers. Gelb saw these issues as crucial for an organization which is dependent on private financing. Gelb began his tenure by opening the 2006–07 season with a production of ''

Madama Butterfly ''Madama Butterfly'' (; ''Madame Butterfly'') is an opera in three acts (originally two) by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It is based on the short story "Madame Butterfly" (1898) by John Luther ...

'' by the English director Anthony Minghella originally staged for English National Opera. Minghella's highly theatrical concept featured vividly colored banners on a spare stage, allowing the focus to be on the detailed acting of the singers. The abstract concept included casting the son of Cio-Cio San as a bunraku-style puppet, operated in plain sight by three puppeteers clothed in black. Gelb focused on expanding the Met's audience through a number of fronts. Increasing the number of new productions every season to keep the Met's stagings fresh and noteworthy, Gelb partnered with other opera companies to import productions and engaged directors from theater, circus, and film to produce the Met's own original productions. Theater directors Bartlett Sher, Mary Zimmerman, and Jack O'Brien joined the list of the Met's directors along with Stephen Wadsworth, Willy Decker,

Laurent Pelly Laurent Pelly (born 14 January 1962 in Paris) is a French opera and theatre director. He enjoys a career as one of France's most sought after directors of both theatre and opera, working regularly in the world's most prestigious houses. Biograp ...

, Luc Bondy and other opera directors to create new stagings for the company. Robert Lepage, the Canadian director of Cirque du Soleil, was engaged by the Met to direct a revival of '' Der Ring des Nibelungen'' using hydraulic stage platforms and projected 3D imagery. To further engage new audiences Gelb initiated live high-definition video transmissions to cinemas worldwide, and regular live satellite radio broadcasts on the Met's own SiriusXM radio channel. New stars that emerged during Gelb's tenure include

Piotr Beczała Piotr Beczała (Polish pronunciation: ); born 28 December 1966) is a Polish operatic tenor with an international career based primarily in Europe and the United States. He has performed in the world's leading opera houses including Metropolitan ...

, Lawrence Brownlee,

Joseph Calleja Joseph Calleja (born January 22, 1978) is a Maltese operatic tenor. Early life and career Calleja was born in Attard, Malta. He began singing at the age of 16, having been discovered by tenor Brian Cefai and continued his studies with Maltese ...

Elīna Garanča Elīna Garanča (born 16 September 1976) is a Latvian mezzo-soprano. She began to study singing in her hometown of Riga in 1996 and continued her studies in Vienna and in the United States. By 1999 she had won first place in a significant compe ...

, Jonas Kaufmann,

Mariusz Kwiecień Mariusz Kwiecień (, born 4 November 1972) is a Polish artistic director and retired operatic baritone who sang leading roles in the major opera houses of Europe and North America. He received particular distinction in the title role of Mozar ...

. Debuting conductors included Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Andris Nelsons, and

Fabio Luisi Fabio Luisi (born 17 January 1959) is an Italian conductor. He is currently principal conductor of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, music director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and chief conductor of the NHK Symphony Orchestra. Biog ...

. Luisi was named Principal Guest Conductor in 2010 and Principal Conductor in 2011, filling a void created by James Levine's two-year absence due to illness. In 2013, following the severance of the dancers' contracts, Gelb announced that the resident ballet company at the Met would cease to exist. In 2014, Gelb and the Met found new controversy with a production of John Adams's opera '' The Death of Klinghoffer'', due to criticism that the work was antisemitic. In response to the controversy Gelb canceled the scheduled worldwide HD video presentation of a performance, but refused demands to cancel the live performances scheduled for October and November 2014. Demonstrators held signs and chanted "Shame on Gelb". On April 14, 2016, the company announced the conclusion of James Levine's tenure as music director at the conclusion of the 2015–16 season. Gelb announced that Levine would also become Music Director Emeritus. On June 2, the Met board announced the appointment of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who was then the music director of the

Philadelphia Orchestra The Philadelphia Orchestra is an American symphony orchestra, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. One of the " Big Five" American orchestras, the orchestra is based at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, where it performs its subscription ...

, as the company's next music director, as of the 2020–2021 season, conducting five productions each season. He took the title of music director-designate, conducting two productions a year, as of the 2017–2018 season. In February 2018, Nézet-Séguin succeeded Levine as music director of the Metropolitan Opera.

James Levine controversy

In response to a December 2017 news article, the Met announced that it would investigate James Levine with regard to sexual abuse allegations dating back to the 1980s, suspended its ties with Levine, and canceled all upcoming engagements with him. Gelb had been contacted directly by a police detective in October 2016 about allegations of sexual abuse of a minor by Levine, had been aware of the accuser's abuse allegations since they were made in a 2016 police report and of the attendant police investigation, but did not suspend Levine or launch an investigation until over a year later. Following the investigations in March 2018, the Met stated that there was conclusive evidence for "sexually abusive and harassing conduct" by Levine. On March 12, 2018, the company announced the full termination of its relationship with Levine, including the rescinding of his title of music director emeritus and dismissal of him as artistic director of its young artists program. On March 15, 2018, Levine filed suit against the company with the New York State Supreme Court, for breach of contract and defamation, and continued to deny the allegations. In response to the suit, the company has stated: "It is shocking that Mr. Levine has refused to accept responsibility for his actions, and has today instead decided to lash out at the Met with a suit riddled with untruths." On August 7, 2019, ''The New York Times'' reported that the Metropolitan Opera and Levine both privately settled their lawsuits. Continuing with the lawsuits "could have put into the public record more details of accusations..."

Russia-Ukraine anti-war activism

On February 28, 2022, Gelb announced that because of the

war in Ukraine The following is a list of major conflicts fought by Ukraine, by Ukrainian people or by regular armies during periods when independent states existed on the modern territory of Ukraine, from the Kyivan Rus' times to the present day. It also i ...

, the Met would be severing ties with all staff and employees who are supporters of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The same night, before the premiere of Verdi's '' Don Carlos'', the Met's chorus and orchestra performed the " State Anthem of Ukraine". Among the singers was Ukrainian bass-baritone

Vladyslav Buialskyi Vladyslav Buialskyi ( uk, Владислав Буяльський; born 15 August 1997) is a Ukrainian bass-baritone. Since 2020, he has performed with the Metropolitan Opera as a member of its Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. Biograp ...

, making his Met debut; footage of him standing center-stage as the only singer without a score and with a hand over his heart was aired by Ukrainian news outlets. In March 2022, Russian-born soprano

made a public statement against the war but failed to explicitly denounce Putin, and was replaced by a Ukrainian singer. Netrebko had performed over 200 times at the Met over the past 20 years. Gelb called her dismissal "a great artistic loss for the Met and for opera" adding "but with Putin killing innocent victims in Ukraine there was no way forward" for her to continue to be associated with the Met. On March 14, the Met hosted a benefit concert with all proceeds going to relief efforts in Ukraine, with Sergiy Kyslytsya, the Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations in attendance. The concert, which was broadcast on worldwide radio including Ukrainian public radio, began with Buialskyi singing the "State Anthem of Ukraine" as a soloist. On December 2022, the Met Opera website has been a target of a

ransomware Ransomware is a type of malware from cryptovirology that threatens to publish the victim's personal data or permanently block access to it unless a ransom is paid off. While some simple ransomware may lock the system without damaging any files, ...

attack, with a "speculation that Russia could be behind the cyberattack." Gelb rejected that rumor.

The MET Orchestra Musicians

In 2015, The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra Committee formed a separate 501(c)3 organization which does business as 'MET Orchestra Musicians'. When the Metropolitan Opera furloughed its orchestra on April 1, 2020, the orchestra used this organization to fundraise with a goal to give out needs-based grants to its members, associates, music librarians and assistant conductors affiliated with The Metropolitan Opera. As of October 19, 2020, 30% of the orchestra has been forced to move out of New York City due to not being able to afford living costs.

Technological innovations

Met Titles

In 1995, under general manager Joseph Volpe, the Met installed its own system of presenting a scripted version of opera texts designed for the particular needs of the Met and its audiences. Anthony Tommasini
"Reinventing Supertitles: How the Met Did It"
, ''The New York Times'', October 2, 1995. Called "Met Titles", the $2.7 million system provides the audience with a script of the opera's text in English on individual screens which face each seat. This system was the first in the world to be placed in an opera house with "each screen (having) a switch to turn it on, a privacy filter to prevent the dim, yellow dot-matrix characters from disturbing nearby viewers and the option to display texts in multiple languages for all productions, (currently German and Spanish) . The custom-designed system features rails of different heights for various sections of the house, individually designed displays for some box seats and commissioned scripts costing up to $8,000 apiece." Owing to the height of the Met's proscenium, it was not feasible to have

surtitles Surtitles, also known as supertitles, SurCaps, OpTrans, are translated or transcribed lyrics/dialogue projected above a stage or displayed on a screen, commonly used in opera, theatre or other musical performances. The word "surtitle" comes from ...

displayed above the stage, as is done in most other opera houses. The idea of above-stage titles had been vehemently opposed by then music director James Levine, but the "Met Titles" system has since been acknowledged as an ideal solution, offering texts to only those members of the Met audience who desire them. Surtitlers at the Met have included Sonya Haddad, whose 2004 obituary called her "one of the country's leading practitioners of her art", Cori Ellison and

Sonya Friedman Sonia is a feminine given name in many areas of the world including Western world, the West, Russia, Iran, and South Asia. Sonia and its variant spellings Sonja and Sonya are derived from the Russian hypocorism, hypocoristic ''Sonya'', an abbreviat ...

Tessitura software

In 1998, Volpe initiated the development of a new software application, now called Tessitura. Tessitura uses a single database of information to record, track and manage all contacts with the Met's constituents, conduct targeted marketing and fund raising appeals, handle all ticketing and membership transactions, and provide detailed and flexible performance reports. Beginning in 2000, Tessitura was offered to other arts organizations under license, and it is now used by a cooperative network of more than 200 opera companies, symphony orchestras, ballet companies, theater companies, performing arts centers, and museums in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland. At the Opera Conference 2016 in Montreal Gelb announced that the Met had commissioned a new ticketing system that would be made available to other institutions.

Multimedia

Broadcast radio

Outside of New York the Met has been known to audiences in large measure through its many years of live radio broadcasts. The Met's broadcast history goes back to January 1910 when radio pioneer

Lee de Forest Lee de Forest (August 26, 1873 – June 30, 1961) was an American inventor and a fundamentally important early pioneer in electronics. He invented the first electronic device for controlling current flow; the three-element "Audion" triode va ...

broadcast experimentally, with erratic signal, two live performances from the stage of the Met that were reportedly heard as far away as Newark, New Jersey. Today the annual Met broadcast season typically begins the first week of December and offers twenty live Saturday matinée performances through May. The first network broadcast was heard on December 25, 1931, a performance of Engelbert Humperdinck's ''

Hänsel und Gretel "Hansel and Gretel" (; german: Hänsel und Gretel ) is a German fairy tale collected by the German Brothers Grimm and published in 1812 in Grimms' Fairy Tales, ''Grimm's Fairy Tales'' (KHM 15). It is also known as Little Step Brother and Little ...

''. The series came about as the Met, financially endangered in the early years of the Great Depression, sought to enlarge its audience and support through national exposure on network radio. Initially, those broadcasts featured only parts of operas, being limited to selected acts. Regular broadcasts of complete operas began March 11, 1933, with the transmission of '' Tristan und Isolde'' with Frida Leider and Lauritz Melchior. The live broadcasts were originally heard on NBC Radio's

Blue Network The Blue Network (previously known as the NBC Blue Network) was the on-air name of a now defunct American Commercial broadcasting, radio network, which broadcast from 1927 through 1945. Beginning as one of the two radio networks owned by the N ...

and continued on the Blue Network's successor,

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

, into the 1960s. As network radio waned, the Met founded its own Metropolitan Opera Radio Network which is now heard on radio stations around the world. In Canada the live broadcasts have been heard since December 1933 first on the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission and, since 1934, on its successor, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation where they are currently heard on

CBC Music CBC Music (formerly known as CBC FM, CBC Stereo and CBC Radio 2) is a Canadian FM radio network operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It used to concentrate on classical and jazz. In 2007 and 2008, the network transitioned towards a ...

. Technical quality of the broadcasts steadily improved over the years. FM broadcasts were added in the 1950s, transmitted to stations via telephone lines. Starting with the 1973–74 season, all broadcasts were offered in FM

stereo Stereophonic sound, or more commonly stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configuration ...

. Satellite technology later allowed uniformly excellent broadcast sound to be sent live worldwide. Sponsorship of the Met broadcasts during the Depression years of the 1930s was sporadic. Early sponsors included the American Tobacco Company, and the Lambert Pharmaceutical Company, but frequently the broadcasts were presented by NBC itself with no commercial sponsor. Sponsorship of the Saturday afternoon broadcasts by The Texas Company ( Texaco) began on December 7, 1940, with

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...

's '' Le nozze di Figaro''. Texaco's support continued for 63 years, the longest continuous sponsorship in broadcast history and included the first PBS television broadcasts. After its merger with Chevron, however, the combined company ChevronTexaco ended its sponsorship of the Met's radio network in April 2004. Emergency grants allowed the broadcasts to continue through 2005 when the home building company Toll Brothers became primary sponsor. In the seven decades of its Saturday broadcasts, the Met has been introduced by the voices of only four permanent announcers. Milton Cross served from the inaugural 1931 broadcast until his death in 1975. He was succeeded by Peter Allen, who served for 29 years, through the 2003–04 season.

Margaret Juntwait Margaret Ann Juntwait (March 18, 1957 – June 3, 2015) was an American radio broadcaster, best known as the announcer of the Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts. After thirteen years on the air at WNYC-Radio, she debuted as the Met's announcer ...

began her tenure as host the following season. From September 2006 through December 2014, Juntwait also served as host for all of the live and recorded broadcasts on the Met's

Sirius XM Sirius XM Holdings Inc. is an American broadcasting company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City that provides satellite radio and online radio services operating in the United States. It was formed by the 2008 merger of Sirius Sat ...

satellite radio channel, Metropolitan Opera Radio. Beginning in January 2015, producer

Mary Jo Heath Mary Jo Heath (born December 11, 1954)

Metropolitan Opera Radio is a 24-hour opera channel on Sirius XM Radio, which presents three to four live opera broadcasts each week during the Met's performing season. During other hours it also offers past broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera radio broadcast archives. The channel was created in September 2006, when the Met initiated a multi-year relationship with Sirius.

is the main host and announcer, with William Berger as writer and co-host.

Television

The Met's experiments with television go back to 1948 when a complete performance of Verdi's ''

'' was broadcast live on

-TV with

Ramón Vinay Ramón Vinay (August 31, 1911 – January 4, 1996) was a famous Chilean operatic tenor with a powerful, dramatic voice. He is probably best remembered for his appearances in the title role of Giuseppe Verdi's tragic opera ''Otello''. Biography He ...

Licia Albanese Licia Albanese (July 22, 1909 – August 15, 2014) was an Italian-born American operatic soprano. Noted especially for her portrayals of the lyric heroines of Verdi and Puccini, Albanese was a leading artist with the Metropolitan Opera from 1940 ...

, and Leonard Warren. The 1949 season opening night ''Der Rosenkavalier'' was also telecast. In the early 1950s the Met tried a short-lived experiment with live

closed-circuit television Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signal is not openly t ...

transmissions to movie theaters. The first of these was a performance of ''

'' with Risë Stevens which was sent to 31 theaters in 27 US cities on December 11, 1952. Beyond these experiments, however, and an occasional gala or special, the Met did not become a regular presence on television until 1977. In that year the company began a series of live television broadcasts on public television with a wildly successful live telecast of '' La bohème'' with Renata Scotto and

. The new series of opera on PBS was called '' Live from the Metropolitan Opera''. This series remained on the air until the early 2000s, although the live broadcasts gave way to taped performances and in 1988 the title was changed to ''The Metropolitan Opera Presents''. Dozens of televised performances were broadcast during the life of the series including an historic complete telecast of Wagner's ''

Ring Cycle (''The Ring of the Nibelung''), WWV 86, is a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Richard Wagner. The works are based loosely on characters from Germanic heroic legend, namely Norse legendary sagas and the ''Nibelung ...

'' in 1989. In 2007 another Met television series debuted on PBS, ''

Great Performances at the Met Metropolitan Opera Live in HD (also known as The Met: Live in HD) is a series of live opera performances transmitted in high-definition video via satellite from the Metropolitan Opera in New York City to select venues, primarily movie theaters, i ...

''. This series airs repeat showings of the

high-definition video High-definition video (HD video) is video of higher resolution and quality than standard-definition. While there is no standardized meaning for ''high-definition'', generally any video image with considerably more than 480 vertical scan lines (No ...

performances produced for the ''

Metropolitan Opera Live in HD Metropolitan Opera Live in HD (also known as The Met: Live in HD) is a series of live opera performances transmitted in high-definition video via satellite from the Metropolitan Opera in New York City to select venues, primarily movie theaters, ...

'' cinema series. In addition to complete operas and gala concerts, television programs produced at the Met have included: an episode of ''

Omnibus Omnibus may refer to: Film and television * ''Omnibus'' (film) * Omnibus (broadcast), a compilation of Radio or TV episodes * ''Omnibus'' (UK TV series), an arts-based documentary programme * ''Omnibus'' (U.S. TV series), an educational progr ...

'' with Leonard Bernstein ( NBC, 1958); ''

Danny Kaye Danny Kaye (born David Daniel Kaminsky; yi, דוד־דניאל קאַמינסקי; January 18, 1911 – March 3, 1987) was an American actor, comedian, singer and dancer. His performances featured physical comedy, idiosyncratic pantomimes, and ...

's Look-In at the Metropolitan Opera'' ( CBS, 1975); '' Sills and Burnett at the Met'' (CBS, 1976); and the '' MTV Video Music Awards'' (1999 and 2001).

High-definition video

Beginning on December 30, 2006, as part of the company's effort to build revenues and attract new audiences, the Met (along with

NCM Fathom NCM may refer to: * a non-commissioned member of the Canadian Armed Forces * the National Cryptologic Museum in the United States * National CineMedia, an in-theater advertising company * Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal * Newcrest Mining ...

) broadcast a series of six performances live via satellite into movie theaters called "Metropolitan Opera: Live in HD". The first broadcast was the Saturday matinee live performance of the 110-minute version of Julie Taymor's production of '' The Magic Flute''. The series was carried in over 100 movie theaters across North America, Japan, Britain and several other European countries. During the 2006–07 season, the series included live HD transmissions of '' I puritani'', ''

The First Emperor ''The First Emperor'' is an opera in two acts with music by Tan Dun and a libretto written in English by Tan Dun and Ha Jin. The opera received its world premiere at the Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center in New York City on 21 December 2006, co ...

'', '' Eugene Onegin'', '' The Barber of Seville'', and '' Il trittico''. In addition, limited repeat showings of the operas were offered in most of the presenting cities. Digital sound for the performances was provided by Sirius Satellite Radio. These movie transmissions have received wide and generally favorable press coverage. The Met reports that 91% of available seats were sold for the HD performances. According to General Manager Peter Gelb, there were 60,000 people in cinemas around the world watching the March 24 transmission of ''The Barber of Seville''.Gelb, speaking during the intermission on March 24, 2007, noted that over 250 movie theatres were presenting the performance that day. '' The New York Times'' reported that 324,000 tickets were sold worldwide for the 2006/07 season, while each simulcast cost $850,000 to $1 million to produce.Daniel Watkin
Met Opera To Expand Simulcasts In Theaters
, ''The New York Times'', May 17, 2007. The 2007/08 season began on December 15, 2007, and featured eight of the Met's productions starting with '' Roméo et Juliette'' and ending with '' La fille du régiment'' on April 26, 2008. The Met planned to broadcast to double the number of theaters in the US as the previous season, as well as to additional countries such as Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. The number of participating venues in the US, which includes movie theatre chains as well as independent theatres and some college campus venues, is 343. while "the scope of the series expands to include more than 700 locations across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia". By the end of the season 920,000 people—exceeding the total number of people who attended live performances at the Met over the entire season—attended the 8 screenings bringing in a gross of $13.3 million from North America and $5 million from overseas.

Internet

Year-round, online video and audio of hundreds of complete operas and excerpts are available to viewers via Met Player, the Met Opera's own online archive of recorded performances. Complete operas and selections are also available on the online music service

Rhapsody Rhapsody may refer to: * A work of epic poetry, or part of one, that is suitable for recitation at one time ** Rhapsode, a classical Greek professional performer of epic poetry Computer software * Rhapsody (online music service), an online m ...

, and for purchase on

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

. The Metropolitan Opera Radio channel on Sirius XM Radio (see above) is available to listeners via the internet in addition to satellite broadcast. The Met's official site also provides complete composer and background information, detailed plot summaries, and cast and characters for all current and upcoming opera broadcasts, as well as for every opera broadcast since 2000. The Met's online archive database provides links to all Rhapsody, Sirius XM, and Met Player operas, with complete program and cast information. The online archive also provides an exhaustive searchable list of every performance and performer in the Metropolitan Opera's history.

COVID-19 pandemic

When people's movements were heavily restricted in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Met cancelled the season's remaining performances but

live streamed Livestreaming is streaming media simultaneously recorded and broadcast in real-time over the internet. It is often referred to simply as streaming. Non-live media such as video-on-demand, vlogs, and YouTube videos are technically streamed, but ...

free of charge an opera every day, normally available on paid subscription. On September 23, 2020, the Met announced the cancellation of its entire 2020–2021 season. The Met reopened in time for the 2021-2022 season, beginning with a concert of Verdi's

Requiem A Requiem or Requiem Mass, also known as Mass for the dead ( la, Missa pro defunctis) or Mass of the dead ( la, Missa defunctorum), is a Mass of the Catholic Church offered for the repose of the soul or souls of one or more deceased persons, ...

to mark the 20th anniversary of

9/11 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...

. On October 24, 2022, the Met, in conjunction with the

NY Philharmonic The New York Philharmonic, officially the Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York, Inc., globally known as New York Philharmonic Orchestra (NYPO) or New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra, is a symphony orchestra based in New York City. It is ...

and

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...

dropped their masking requirements, the last COVID-related restriction that was still in place. This was nearly 3 years since the original start of the pandemic.

Opera houses

Metropolitan Opera House, Broadway

The first Metropolitan Opera House opened on October 22, 1883, with a performance of '' Faust''. It was located at 1411 Broadway between 39th and 40th Streets and was designed by

J. Cleaveland Cady Josiah Cleaveland Cady (January 1837 – April 17, 1919) or J. Cleaveland Cady, was an American architect who is known for his Romanesque architecture, Romanesque and Rundbogenstil style designs. He was also a founder of the American Institute ...

. Gutted by fire on August 27, 1892, the theater was immediately rebuilt, reopening in the fall of 1893. Another major renovation was completed in 1903. The theater's interior was extensively redesigned by the architects Carrère and Hastings. The familiar red and gold interior associated with the house dates from this time. The old Met had a seating capacity of 3,625 with an additional 224 standing room places. The theater was noted for its elegance and excellent acoustics and it provided a glamorous home for the company. Its stage facilities, however, were found to be severely inadequate from its earliest days. Over the years many plans for a new opera house were explored and abandoned, including a proposal to incorporate a new Metropolitan Opera House into the construction of Rockefeller Center. It was only with the development of Lincoln Center that the Met was able to build itself a new home. The Met held a lavish farewell gala performance for the old house on April 16, 1966. The theater closed after a short season of ballet later in the spring of 1966 and was demolished in 1967.

Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center

The present Metropolitan Opera House is located in Lincoln Center at Lincoln Square in the Upper West Side and was designed by architect

Wallace K. Harrison Wallace Kirkman Harrison (September 28, 1895 – December 2, 1981) was an American architect. Harrison started his professional career with the firm of Corbett, Harrison & MacMurray, participating in the construction of Rockefeller Center. He is ...

. It has a seating capacity of approximately 3,732 with an additional 245 standing room places at the rear of the main floor and the top balcony. As needed, the size of the orchestra pit can be decreased and another row of 35 seats added at the front of the auditorium. The lobby is adorned with two famous murals by

Marc Chagall Marc Chagall; russian: link=no, Марк Заха́рович Шага́л ; be, Марк Захаравіч Шагал . (born Moishe Shagal; 28 March 1985) was a Russian-French artist. An early modernism, modernist, he was associated with se ...

, ''The Triumph of Music'' and ''The Sources of Music''. Each of these gigantic paintings measures 30 by 36 feet. After numerous revisions to its design, the new building opened September 16, 1966, with the world premiere of

's ''

''. The theater, while large, is noted for its excellent acoustics. The stage facilities, state of the art when the theater was built, continue to be updated technically and are capable of handling multiple large complex opera productions simultaneously. When the opera company is on hiatus, the Opera House is annually home to the spring season of

American Ballet Theatre American Ballet Theatre (ABT) is a classical ballet company based in New York City. Founded in 1939 by Lucia Chase and Richard Pleasant, it is recognized as one of the world's leading classical ballet companies. Through 2019, it had an annual ei ...

. It has also hosted visits from other noted opera and ballet companies.

Metropolitan Opera House, Philadelphia

To provide a home for its regular Tuesday night performances in Philadelphia, the Met purchased an opera house originally built in 1908 by Oscar Hammerstein I, the Philadelphia Opera House at North Broad and Poplar Streets. Renamed the Metropolitan Opera House, the theater was operated by the Met from 1910 until it sold the house in April 1920. The Met debuted at its new Philadelphia home on December 13, 1910, with a performance of Richard Wagner's '' Tannhäuser'' starring

Leo Slezak Leo Slezak (; 18 August 1873 – 1 June 1946) was a Moravian dramatic tenor. He was associated in particular with Austrian opera as well as the title role in Verdi's ''Otello''. He is the father of actors Walter Slezak and Margarete Slezak and ...

and

Olive Fremstad Olive Fremstad (14 March 1871 – 21 April 1951) was the stage name of Anna Olivia Rundquist, a celebrated Swedish-American opera diva who sang in both the mezzo-soprano and soprano ranges.Rosenthal and Warrack (1979) p. 180 Background Born ...

. The Philadelphia Met was designed by noted theater architect

William H. McElfatrick William H. McElfatrick (1854 - 28 September 1922) was an American architect who specialized in theaters. Life William H. McElfatrick was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, in 1854, son of the theater architect John Bailey McElfatrick. He learned the a ...

and had a seating capacity of approximately 4,000. The theater still stands and currently functions as a church and community arts center.

Principal conductors

In the Met's inaugural season of 1883–1884,

, who conducted most of the performances that season including the opening night, was listed in the playbills as "Musical Director and Conductor"; thereafter, the Met did not have another officially designated "music director" until Rafael Kubelík in 1973. However, a number of the Met's conductors have assumed a strong leadership role at different times in the company's history. They set artistic standards and influenced the quality and performance style of the orchestra, but without any official title. The Met has also had many famed guest conductors who are not listed here. * Anton Seidl (1885–97) *

(1884–1902) *

Alfred Hertz Alfred Hertz (15 July 1872 – 17 April 1942) was a Prussian-born conductor. Early life He was born in Frankfurt, Province of Hesse-Nassau, Prussia (in present-day Germany). As a child, he contracted infantile paralysis and walked with a ca ...

(1902–15, leading conductor of German repertory) *

(1908–10) *

(1908–15) * Artur Bodanzky (1915–39, leading conductor of German repertory) * Tullio Serafin (1924–34) *

Fausto Cleva Fausto Cleva (May 17, 1902August 6, 1971) was an Austro-Hungarian Empire-born American operatic conductor. Life and career Fausto Cleva was born in Trieste in 1902. After studies at the Conservatorio in his native city and Milan, Cleva made his ...

(1931–71) * Bruno Walter (1941–51, 1956, 1959) * Ettore Panizza (1934–42, leading conductor of Italian repertory) * Erich Leinsdorf (1938–42, leading conductor of German repertory) * George Szell (1942–46) *

Cesare Sodero Cesare Sodero (August 2, 1886 – December 16, 1947) was an Italian conductor who spent much of his career working in the United States. Biography Born in Naples, Sodero studied with Giuseppe Martucci, and graduated from the Naples Conservator ...

(1942–47) *

Fritz Busch Fritz Busch (13 March 1890 – 14 September 1951) was a German conductor. Busch was born in Siegen, Westphalia, to a musical family, and studied at the Cologne Conservatory. After army service in the First World War, he was appointed to senior p ...

(1945–49) * Fritz Reiner (1949–53) * Dimitri Mitropoulos (1954–60) * Erich Leinsdorf (1957–62) * Kurt Adler (1943–73, chorus master and conductor) * Rafael Kubelík (music director 1973–74) * James Levine (music director 1976–2016; artistic director 1986–2004; music director emeritus 2016–2017) * Valery Gergiev (principal guest conductor 1997–2008) *

(principal guest conductor 2010–2011; principal conductor 2011–2017) * Yannick Nézet-Séguin (music director 2018–)

Deaths at the Met

Over the years, a number of deaths have occurred at the Metropolitan Opera House. On February 10, 1897, French bass Armand Castelmary suffered a heart attack onstage in the finale of act one of Flotow's '' Martha''. He died in the arms of his friend, tenor Jean de Reszke, after the curtain was brought down. The performance resumed with Giuseppe Cernusco substituting in the role of Sir Tristram. On May 10, 1935,

, the incoming General Manager suffered a heart attack and died at his desk. On March 4, 1960, leading baritone Leonard Warren died of a heart attack onstage after completing the aria "Urna fatale" in act two of Verdi's ''

La forza del destino ' (; ''The Power of Fate'', often translated ''The Force of Destiny'') is an Italian opera by Giuseppe Verdi. The libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on a Spanish drama, ' (1835), by Ángel de Saavedra, 3rd Duke of Rivas, wi ...

''. On April 30, 1977, Betty Stone, a member of the Met chorus, was killed in an accident offstage during a tour performance of '' Il trovatore'' in Cleveland. On July 23, 1980, Helen Hagnes Mintiks, a 30-year-old Canadian-born violinist, was murdered by Met stagehand Craig Crimmins during the intermission of a performance of the Berlin Ballet. The event was cited by numerous publications as "The Phantom of the Opera" murder. On January 5, 1996, tenor

Richard Versalle Richard Lee Versalle (3 December 1932 – 5 January 1996) was an American operatic tenor. Life and career Richard Versalle was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan on December 3, 1932. After serving in the Submarines in the United States Navy, submarine b ...

died while playing the role of Vitek during the production of Leoš Janáček's ''

The Makropulos Case ''Věc Makropulos'' is a Czech play written by Karel Čapek. Its title—literally ''The Makropulos Thing''—has been variously rendered in English as ''The Makropulos Affair'', ''The Makropulos Case'', or ''The Makropulos Secret'' (Čapek's o ...

''. Versalle was climbing a ladder in the opening scene when he suffered a heart attack and fell to the stage. In addition, several audience members have died at the Met. The most widely known incident was the suicide of operagoer

Bantcho Bantchevsky Bantcho Bantchevsky ( bg, Банчо Банчевски; also spelled Banchevsky or Banchevski; May 5, 1906 – January 23, 1988) was a Bulgarian-born American singer, singing coach, and translator. He died by suicide at the Metropolitan Opera in N ...

on January 23, 1988, during an intermission of Verdi's ''

Macbeth ''Macbeth'' (, full title ''The Tragedie of Macbeth'') is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. It is thought to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those w ...

''."Metro Datelines; Man's Death at Opera Is Called a Suicide"
, ''The New York Times'', January 25, 1988; retrieved December 1, 2006.

Finances and marketing

The company's annual operating budget for the 2011–12 season was $325 million, of which $182 million (43%) comes from private donations. The total potential audience across a season is 800,000 seats. The average audience rate for the 3800-seat theater in 2011 was 79.2%, down from a peak of 88% in 2009.Watkin, Daniel J. and Kevin Flynn

, ''The New York Times''. Beyond performing in the opera house in New York, the Met has gradually expanded its audience over the years through technology. It has broadcast regularly on radio since 1931 and on television since 1977. In 2006, the Met began live satellite radio and internet broadcasts as well as live

transmissions presented in cinemas throughout the world. In 2011, the total HD audience reached 3 million through 1600 theaters worldwide. In 2014, according to Wheeler Winston Dixon, high ticket prices are making it difficult for average people to attend performances.Harry Bruinius
"The Met averts shutdown: Does opera have to be grand to survive?" (+video)
, ''Christian Science Monitor'', August 19, 2014. Retrieved November 28, 2014: "...the Met is no longer for the average person..." citing film scholar Wheeler Winston Dixon.

Notes

References

External links

*
Metropolitan Opera Association database

History of Metropolitan Opera Association
- ''funding universe''
The Metropolitan Opera Company: the Kahn effect

Metropolitan Opera History

Met Opera Radio
on

The Metropolitan Opera
at

Google Arts & Culture Google Arts & Culture (formerly Google Art Project) is an online platform of high-resolution images and videos of artworks and cultural artifacts from partner cultural organizations throughout the world. It utilizes high-resolution image technol ...

"The New Stage of the Metropolitan Opera House, Rebuilt for the Production of ''Parsifal''"
'' Scientific American'' (1904). {{authority control Opera houses in New York City New York City opera companies Musical groups established in 1880 Peabody Award winners Music venues in Manhattan Ballet venues Dance venues in the United States Lincoln Center 1880 establishments in New York (state)