Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcast

The Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts are a regular series of weekly broadcasts on network radio of full-length opera performances. They are transmitted live from the stage of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. The Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network airs the live performances on Saturday afternoons while the Met is in season, typically beginning the first Saturday in December, and totaling just over 20 weekly performances through early May. The Met broadcasts are the longest-running continuous classical music program in radio history, and the series has won several Peabody Awards for excellence in broadcasting.

The series is currently broadcast on over 300 stations in the United States, and stations in 40 countries on 5 continents. These countries include Canada, Mexico, 27 European countries, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay, China, and Japan. The broadcasts are also listenable online via streaming audio;Metropolitan Opera via Streaming Audio
/ref> and select broadcasts and excerpts are listenable year-round on the "Met Opera on Demand" serviceTsioulcas, Anastasia
"The Metropolitan Opera Anytime — And Anywhere — You Want It"
''NPR Classic'' (blog). March 15, 2012. and on the free online service Rhapsody.The Met
on Rhapsody

History

The Met's radio broadcast history dates back to 1910, when radio pioneer Lee De Forest transmitted — experimentally, with erratic signal — two live partial performances from the stage of the Met, which were reportedly heard as far away as Newark, New Jersey'' on January 12, 1910, starring Antonio Scotti as Scarpia. The following evening, January 13, 1910, parts of ''Pagliacci'' starring Enrico Caruso were broadcast.

The first network broadcast was heard on Friday, December 25, 1931: a performance of Engelbert Humperdinck's '' Hänsel und Gretel''. The series was created 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. In the first broadcast season only ''Hänsel und Gretel'' and ''Das Rheingold'' (February 26, 1932) were presented in their entirety; most operas were only heard partially. From the start of the 1933-34 season, complete opera broadcasts became the norm. Since 1931 most broadcasts have been of Saturday matinee performances, with only a handful of exceptions such as the opening night of the new Met, which featured a broadcast of Samuel Barber's ''Antony and Cleopatra'' on Friday September 16, 1966.

The live radio broadcasts were originally heard on NBC, and became a staple of its Blue Network. Starting in 1944 the series continued on the Blue Network's successor, ABC, through 1958. From 1958 to 1960 the series was broadcast on CBS.Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network Broadcast History
/ref> As network radio waned with the rise of television, the Met founded its own independent Metropolitan Opera Radio Network in 1960, which is now heard on radio stations around the world. The Met's first live closed-circuit television transmission was ''Carmen'' with Rise Stevens, sent to 31 movie theaters in 27 US cities on December 11, 1952.

In Canada the live broadcasts have been heard since December 1933, first on the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission. Since 1934 they have been heard on the CRBC's successor, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, where they currently air on CBC Radio 2 on ''Saturday Afternoon at the Opera'' and on the CBC's French music network, Ici Musique on ''Place à l'Opéra''.

In the late 1930s and early 1940s the broadcasts were transmitted live via shortwave to Latin America over the NBC White Network. Transcription discs made by NBC were also sent to Latin America for relay over local radio stations in much better quality. Some of these discs survive. Spanish commentary and intermission features were inserted for Spanish-speaking countries, and Portuguese for Brazil.

In December 1990, the broadcast series expanded its transmission to include Europe, via satellite transmission and the European Broadcasting Union. Australia and New Zealand joined the network in the late 1990s; Brazil and Mexico in 1999. Uruguay, Ecuador, and Japan joined in 2000.

Technical quality of the broadcasts steadily improved over the years. FM broadcasts were added in the 1950s, transmitted to stations via telephone lines. With the arrival of the 1973-74 broadcasting season (December 1973), all broadcasts were offered in FM stereo. Satellite technology later allowed uniformly excellent broadcast sound to be sent live worldwide.

Sponsors

Financing the Met broadcasts during the Depression years of the 1930s proved to be problematic, moving between NBC, the American Tobacco Company, the Lambert Pharmaceutical Company, and RCA (then NBC’s parent company).

Sponsorship of the Saturday afternoon broadcasts by The Texas Company (Texaco) began on December 7, 1940, with a performance of Mozart's ''Le nozze di Figaro''. Texaco's support continued for 63 years, the longest continuous sponsorship in broadcast history, and also included the early 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, whereupon the homebuilding company Toll Brothers stepped in to become the primary sponsor.

Additional support for the broadcasts also comes from the Annenberg Foundation, the Vincent A. Stabile Endowment for Broadcast Media, and contributions from listeners around the world.

Announcers

In the eight decades of its Saturday broadcasts, the Met has been introduced by the voices of only five permanent announcers. NBC announcer Milton Cross served for 43 seasons, from the inaugural 1931 broadcast until his death in 1975. He was succeeded by Peter Allen, who presided for 29 years through the 2003–04 season. Margaret Juntwait 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 satellite radio channel, Metropolitan Opera Radio. Following her ninth season in the job, Juntwait died from cancer in June 2015. Met Opera radio producer Mary Jo Heath