The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
, resident at the
Metropolitan Opera House at
Lincoln Center, currently situated on the
Upper West Side of
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
. The company is operated by the
non-profit
A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
Metropolitan Opera Association, with
Peter Gelb
Peter Gelb (born 1953) is an American arts administrator. Since August 2006, he has been General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.
Career
Early career
While in high school, Gelb began his association with the Metropolitan Opera ...
as general manager. As of 2018, the company's current music director is
Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, CC (; born Yannick Séguin;David Patrick Stearns, "Nezet-Seguin signs Philadelphia Orchestra contract". ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', 19 June 2010. 6 March 1975) is a Canadian ( Québécois) conductor and pianist. He ...
.
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 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
A repertory theatre is a theatre in which a resident company presents works from a specified repertoire, usually in alternation or rotation.
United Kingdom
Annie Horniman founded the first modern repertory theatre in Manchester after withdrawin ...
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
In the performing arts, film exhibition, and other forms of entertainment, a matinée is a performance or exhibition in the afternoon (or occasionally earlier), as distinguished from the evening
Evening is the period of a day that starts at t ...
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 and 19th-century
Bel canto to the
Minimalism 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" families were loath to admit New York's newly wealthy
industrialists into their long-established
social circle. 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
Delmonico's is the name of a series of restaurants that operated in New York City, with the present version located at 56 Beaver Street in the Financial District of Manhattan. The original version was widely recognized as the United States ...
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,
Roosevelt
Roosevelt may refer to:
*Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919), 26th U.S. president
* Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945), 32nd U.S. president
Businesses and organisations
* Roosevelt Hotel (disambiguation)
* Roosevelt & Son, a merchant bank
* Rooseve ...
, 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/
impresario
An impresario (from the Italian ''impresa'', "an enterprise or undertaking") is a person who organizes and often finances concerts, plays, or operas, performing a role in stage arts that is similar to that of a film or television producer.
His ...
s to stage a season of opera at the new
Metropolitan Opera House.
Henry Abbey served as manager for the inaugural season, 1883–84, which opened with a performance of
Charles Gounod
Charles-François Gounod (; ; 17 June 181818 October 1893), usually known as Charles Gounod, was a French composer. He wrote twelve operas, of which the most popular has always been ''Faust (opera), Faust'' (1859); his ''Roméo et Juliette'' (18 ...
's ''
Faust
Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust ( 1480–1540).
The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a pact with the Devil at a crossroa ...
'' starring the brilliant Swedish soprano
Christina Nilsson. Abbey's company that first season featured an ensemble of artists led by sopranos Nilsson and
Marcella Sembrich
Prakseda Marcelina Kochańska (February 15, 1858 – January 11, 1935), known professionally as Marcella Sembrich, was a Polish coloratura soprano. She is known for her extensive range of two and a half octaves, precise intonation, charm, port ...
; mezzo-soprano
Sofia Scalchi; tenors
Italo Campanini and
Roberto Stagno; baritone
Giuseppe Del Puente; and bass
Franco Novara
Franco may refer to:
Name
* Franco (name)
* Francisco Franco (1892–1975), Spanish general and dictator of Spain from 1939 to 1975
* Franco Luambo (1938–1989), Congolese musician, the "Grand Maître"
Prefix
* Franco, a prefix used when ref ...
. 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 or
Cleofonte Campanini (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
Dame Alice Ellen Terry, (27 February 184721 July 1928), was a leading English actress of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Born into a family of actors, Terry began performing as a child, acting in Shakespeare plays in London, and tour ...
in a scene from Shakespeare's ''
The Merchant of Venice
''The Merchant of Venice'' is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. A merchant in Venice named Antonio defaults on a large loan provided by a Jewish moneylender, Shylock.
Although classified as ...
''. 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
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
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 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
Oscar Hammerstein I (8 May 18461 August 1919) was a German-born businessman, theater impresario, and composer in New York City. His passion for opera led him to open several opera houses, and he rekindled opera's popularity in America. He was ...
. 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 and
Franco Corelli in ''
Turandot
''Turandot'' (; see below) is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, posthumously completed by Franco Alfano in 1926, and set to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni. ''Turandot'' best-known aria is " Nessun dorma", ...
''. 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
Leopold Damrosch (October 22, 1832 – February 15, 1885) was a German American orchestral conductor and composer.
Biography
Damrosch was born in Posen (Poznań), Kingdom of Prussia, the son of Heinrich Damrosch. His father was Jewish and his m ...
as general manager.
The revered conductor of the
New York Symphony Orchestra 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
Anton Seidl (7 May 185028 March 1898) was a famous Hungarian Wagner conductor, best known for his association with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City and the New York Philharmonic.
Biography
He was born in Pest, Austria-Hungary, where ...
whose Wagner interpretations were noted for their almost mystical intensity. The conductor
Walter Damrosch, 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
James Henry Mapleson (Colonel Mapleson) (4 May 1830 – 14 November 1901) was an English opera impresario, a leading figure in the development of opera production, and of the careers of singers, in London and New York in the mid-19th century.
Born ...
, was employed by the Met as a violinist and music librarian. He used an
Edison cylinder phonograph 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, 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
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, is located in Manhattan, New York City, at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on the Upper West Side, between the Metro ...
.
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 Grau
[Untitled obituary:](_blank)
''The New York Times'', March 15, 1907 as
Abbey, Schoeffel and Grau. 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
Jean may refer to:
People
* Jean (female given name)
* Jean (male given name)
* Jean (surname)
Fictional characters
* Jean Grey, a Marvel Comics character
* Jean Valjean, fictional character in novel ''Les Misérables'' and its adaptations
* Jea ...
and
Édouard de Reszke,
Lilli Lehmann
Lilli Lehmann, born Elisabeth Maria Lehmann, later Elisabeth Maria Lehmann-Kalisch (24 November 1848 – 17 May 1929) was a German operatic soprano. She was also a voice teacher.
Biography
The future opera star's father, Karl-August Lehmann, wa ...
,
Emma Calvé
Emma Calvé, born Rosa Emma Calvet (15 August 1858 – 6 January 1942) was a French operatic soprano.
Calvé was probably the most famous French female opera singer of the Belle Époque. Hers was an international career, and she sang regularly ...
,
Lillian Nordica,
Nellie Melba
Dame Nellie Melba (born Helen Porter Mitchell; 19 May 186123 February 1931) was an Australian operatic dramatic coloratura soprano (three octaves). She became one of the most famous singers of the late Victorian era and the early 20th centur ...
,
Marcella Sembrich
Prakseda Marcelina Kochańska (February 15, 1858 – January 11, 1935), known professionally as Marcella Sembrich, was a Polish coloratura soprano. She is known for her extensive range of two and a half octaves, precise intonation, charm, port ...
,
Milka Ternina,
Emma Eames,
Sofia Scalchi,
Ernestine Schumann-Heink
Ernestine Schumann-Heink (15 June 186117 November 1936) was a Bohemian-born Austrian-American operatic dramatic contralto of German Bohemian descent. She was noted for the flexibility and wide range of her voice.
Early life
She was born Ernes ...
,
Francesco Tamagno,
Francesc Viñas, Jean Lassalle,
Mario Ancona,
Victor Maurel
Victor Maurel (17 June 184822 October 1923) was a French operatic baritone who enjoyed an international reputation as a great singing actor.
Biography
Maurel was born in Marseille. Educated in music and stagecraft at the Paris Conservatory, ...
,
Antonio Scotti and
Pol Plançon. 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 in 1903–08 was distinguished especially by the arrival of the Neapolitan tenor
Enrico Caruso, the most celebrated singer who ever appeared at the old Metropolitan. He was also instrumental in hiring conductor
Arturo Vigna.
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, the music director from his seasons at La Scala.
Many of the most noted singers of the era appeared at the Met under Gatti-Casazza's leadership, including sopranos
Rosa Ponselle
Rosa Melba Ponzillo, known as Rosa Ponselle (January 22, 1897 – May 25, 1981) was an American operatic soprano.
She sang mainly at the New York Metropolitan Opera and is generally considered to have been one of the greatest sopranos of the 20t ...
,
Elisabeth Rethberg,
Maria Jeritza
Maria Jeritza (born Marie Jedličková; 6 October 1887 – 10 July 1982) was a dramatic soprano, long associated with the Vienna State Opera (1912–1934 and 1950-1953) and the Metropolitan Opera (1921–1932 and 1951). Her rapid rise to fame, ...
,
Emmy Destinn
Emmy Destinn ( (); 26 February 1878 – 28 January 1930) was a Czech operatic soprano with a strong and soaring lyric-dramatic voice. She had a career both in Europe and at the New York Metropolitan Opera.
Biography
Destinn was born Emíl ...
,
Frances Alda
Frances Davis Alda (31 May 1879 – 18 September 1952) was a New Zealand-born, Australian-raised operatic lyric soprano. She achieved fame during the first three decades of the 20th century due to her outstanding singing voice, fine technique ...
,
Frida Leider,
Amelita Galli-Curci,
Bernice de Pasquali, and
Lily Pons
Alice Joséphine Pons (April 12, 1898 – February 13, 1976), known professionally as Lily Pons, was a French-American operatic soprano and actress who had an active career from the late 1920s through the early 1970s. As an opera singer, she s ...
; tenors
Jacques Urlus
Jacques Urlus (6 January 1867 in Hergenrath, Rhine Province - 6 June 1935 in Noordwijk, Netherlands), was a Dutch dramatic tenor. He sang to great critical acclaim at major opera houses on both sides of the Atlantic, and his recordings of the musi ...
,
Giovanni Martinelli
Giovanni Martinelli (22 October 1885 – 2 February 1969) was an Italian operatic tenor. He was associated with the Italian lyric-dramatic repertory, although he performed French operatic roles to great acclaim as well. Martinelli was one of t ...
,
Beniamino Gigli,
Giacomo Lauri-Volpi
Giacomo Lauri-Volpi (11 December 1892 – 17 March 1979) was an Italian tenor with a lyric voice of exceptional range and technical facility. He performed throughout Europe and the Americas in a top-class career that spanned 40 years.
Caree ...
, and
Lauritz Melchior
Lauritz Melchior (20 March 1890 – 18 March 1973) was a Danish-American opera singer. He was the preeminent Richard Wagner, Wagnerian tenor of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s and has come to be considered the quintessence of his voice type. Late i ...
; baritones
Titta Ruffo
Titta Ruffo (9 June 1877 – 5 July 1953), born as Ruffo Cafiero (double forename) Titta, was an Italian operatic baritone who had a major international singing career. Known as the "Voce del leone" ("voice of the lion"), he was greatly admi ...
,
Giuseppe De Luca,
Pasquale Amato
Pasquale Amato (21 March 1878 – 12 August 1942) was an Italian operatic baritone. Amato enjoyed an international reputation but attained the peak of his fame in New York City, where he sang with the Metropolitan Opera from 1908 until 1921.
...
, and
Lawrence Tibbett; and basses
Friedrich Schorr,
Feodor Chaliapin
Feodor Ivanovich Chaliapin ( rus, Фёдор Ива́нович Шаля́пин, Fyodor Ivanovich Shalyapin, ˈfʲɵdər ɪˈvanəvʲɪtɕ ʂɐˈlʲapʲɪn}; April 12, 1938) was a Russian opera singer. Possessing a deep and expressive bass v ...
, Jose Mardones,
Tancredi Pasero and
Ezio Pinza
Ezio Fortunato Pinza (May 18, 1892May 9, 1957) was an Italian opera singer. Pinza possessed a rich, smooth and sonorous voice, with a flexibility unusual for a bass. He spent 22 seasons at New York's Metropolitan Opera, appearing in more than 750 ...
—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 also was a Met conductor during Gatti-Casazza's first two seasons and in later years conductors
Tullio Serafin
Tullio Serafin (1 September 18782 February 1968) was an Italian conductor and former Musical Director at La Scala.
Biography
Tullio Serafin was a leading Italian opera conductor with a long career and a very broad repertoire who revived many 19t ...
and
Artur Bodanzky
Artur Bodanzky (also written as Artur Bodzansky) (16 December 1877 – 23 November 1939) was an Austrian-American conductor particularly associated with the operas of Wagner. He conducted Enrico Caruso's last performance at the Metropolitan Oper ...
led the company in the Italian and German repertories respectively.
Following Toscanini's departure, Gatti-Casazza successfully guided the company through the years of
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
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, 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, 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
The construction of the Rockefeller Center complex in New York City was conceived as an urban renewal project in the late 1920s, spearheaded by John D. Rockefeller Jr. to help revitalize Midtown Manhattan. Rockefeller Center is on one of Colum ...
, a plan was floated to move the opera from the building on 39th Street to the new
Rockefeller Center
Rockefeller Center is a large complex consisting of 19 commercial buildings covering between 48th Street and 51st Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The 14 original Art Deco buildings, commissioned by the Rockefeller family, span th ...
. 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.
Soon after his appointment, Cravath obtained new revenue through a contract with the
National Broadcasting Company for weekly radio broadcasts of Met performances.
The first national broadcast took place December 25, 1931, when ''
Hansel and Gretel
"Hansel and Gretel" (; german: Hänsel und Gretel ) is a German fairy tale collected by the German Brothers Grimm and published in 1812 in ''Grimm's Fairy Tales'' (KHM 15). It is also known as Little Step Brother and Little Step Sister.
Hansel ...
'' 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
An opera house is a theatre building used for performances of opera. It usually includes a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and building sets.
While some venues are constructed specifically fo ...
. 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, 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
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
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
Kirsten Malfrid Flagstad (12 July 1895 – 7 December 1962) was a Norwegian opera singer, who was the outstanding Wagnerian soprano of her era. Her triumphant debut in New York on 2 February 1935 is one of the legends of opera. Giulio Gatti-Casa ...
with the great
heldentenor
A heldentenor (; English: ''heroic tenor''), earlier called tenorbariton, is an operatic tenor voice, most often associated with Wagnerian repertoire.
It is distinct from other tenor '' fächer'' by its endurance, volume, and dark timbre, which ...
Lauritz Melchior
Lauritz Melchior (20 March 1890 – 18 March 1973) was a Danish-American opera singer. He was the preeminent Richard Wagner, Wagnerian tenor of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s and has come to be considered the quintessence of his voice type. Late i ...
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
Eleanor Elise Robson Belmont (13 December 1879 – 24 October 1979) was an English actress and prominent public figure in the United States. George Bernard Shaw wrote '' Major Barbara'' for her, but contractual problems prevented her from playi ...
, the former actress and wife to industrialist
August Belmont
August Belmont Sr. (born August Schönberg; December 8, 1813November 24, 1890) was a German-American financier, diplomat, politician and party chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and also a horse-breeder and racehorse owner. He wa ...
, 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, 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
Zinka Milanov (; May 17, 1906 – May 30, 1989) was a Croatian operatic dramatic soprano who had a major career centered on the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. After finishing her education in Zagreb, Milanov made her debut in 1927 in Ljublj ...
,
Jussi Björling, and
Alexander Kipnis 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
Eleanor Steber (July 17, 1914October 3, 1990) was an American operatic soprano. Steber is noted as one of the first major opera stars to have achieved the highest success with training and a career based in the United States.
Biography
Eleanor ...
,
Dorothy Kirsten
Dorothy Kirsten (July 6, 1910, Montclair, New Jersey – November 18, 1992, Los Angeles, California) was an American operatic soprano.
Biography
Kirsten's mother was an organist and music teacher, her grandfather was a conductor, and her great-a ...
,
Helen Traubel
Helen Francesca Traubel (June 16, 1899July 28, 1972) was an American opera and concert singer. A dramatic soprano, she was best known for her Wagnerian roles, especially those of Brünnhilde and Isolde.
Born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, ...
(Flagstad's successor as Wagner's heroines),
Jan Peerce,
Richard Tucker
Richard Tucker (August 28, 1913January 8, 1975) was an American operatic tenor and cantor. Long associated with the Metropolitan Opera, Tucker's career was primarily centered in the United States.
Early life
Tucker was born Rivn (Rubin) Ticke ...
,
Leonard Warren
Leonard Warren (April 21, 1911 – March 4, 1960) was an American opera singer. A baritone, he was a leading artist for many years with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Especially noted for his portrayals of the leading baritone roles in ...
and
Robert Merrill were among the many home grown artists to become stars at the Met in the 1940s.
Ettore Panizza
Ettore Panizza (born Héctor Panizza; 12 August 187527 November 1967) was an Argentine conductor and composer, one of the leading conductors of the early 20th century. Panizza possessed technical mastery and was popular and influential during ...
, Sir
Thomas Beecham
Sir Thomas Beecham, 2nd Baronet, Order of the Companions of Honour, CH (29 April 18798 March 1961) was an English conductor and impresario best known for his association with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonic and the Roya ...
,
George Szell
George Szell (; June 7, 1897 – July 30, 1970), originally György Széll, György Endre Szél, or Georg Szell, was a Hungarian-born American conductor and composer. He is widely considered one of the twentieth century's greatest condu ...
and
Bruno Walter
Bruno Walter (born Bruno Schlesinger, September 15, 1876February 17, 1962) was a German-born conductor, pianist and composer. Born in Berlin, he escaped Nazi Germany in 1933, was naturalised as a French citizen in 1938, and settled in the U ...
were among the leading conductors engaged during Johnson's tenure.
Kurt Adler
Kurt Adler (March 1, 1907September 21, 1977) was an Austrian classical chorus master, music conductor, author and pianist. He was best known as the chorus master and lead conductor of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City from 1943 to 1973. H ...
began his long tenure as chorus master and staff conductor in 1943.
Rudolf Bing
Succeeding Johnson in 1950 was the Austrian-born
Rudolf Bing
Sir Rudolf Bing, KBE (January 9, 1902 – September 2, 1997) was an Austrian-born British opera impresario who worked in Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States, most notably being General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera in New York ...
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,
Dimitri Mitropoulos
Dimitri Mitropoulos ( el, Δημήτρης Μητρόπουλος; The dates 18 February 1896 and 1 March 1896 both appear in the literature. Many of Mitropoulos's early interviews and program notes gave 18 February. In his later interviews, howe ...
,
Erich Leinsdorf
Erich Leinsdorf (born Erich Landauer; February 4, 1912 – September 11, 1993) was an Austrian-born American conductor. He performed and recorded with leading orchestras and opera companies throughout the United States and Europe, earning a ...
,
Fritz Reiner
Frederick Martin "Fritz" Reiner (December 19, 1888 – November 15, 1963) was a prominent conductor of opera and symphonic music in the twentieth century. Hungarian born and trained, he emigrated to the United States in 1922, where he rose to ...
, and
Karl Böhm 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
Marian Anderson (February 27, 1897April 8, 1993) was an American contralto. She performed a wide range of music, from opera to spirituals. Anderson performed with renowned orchestras in major concert and recital venues throughout the United ...
's historic 1955 debut was followed by the introduction of a gifted generation of African American artists led by
Leontyne Price
Mary Violet Leontyne Price (born February 10, 1927) is an American soprano who was the first African American soprano to receive international acclaim. From 1961 she began a long association with the Metropolitan Opera, where she was the first Af ...
(who inaugurated the new house at Lincoln Center),
Reri Grist,
Grace Bumbry
Grace Melzia Bumbry (born January 4, 1937), an American opera singer, is considered one of the leading mezzo-sopranos of her generation, as well as a major soprano earlier in her career. She is a member of a pioneering generation of African-Ameri ...
,
Shirley Verrett
Shirley Verrett (May 31, 1931 – November 5, 2010) was an American operatic mezzo-soprano who successfully transitioned into soprano roles, i.e. soprano sfogato. Verrett enjoyed great fame from the late 1960s through the 1990s, particularly we ...
,
Martina Arroyo
Martina Arroyo (born February 2, 1937) is an American operatic soprano who had a major international opera career from the 1960s through the 1980s. She was part of the first generation of black opera singers to achieve wide success.
Arroyo first ...
,
George Shirley
George Irving Shirley (born April 18, 1934) is an American operatic tenor, and was the first African-American tenor to perform a leading role at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.
Early life
Shirley was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, and r ...
,
Robert McFerrin
Robert Keith McFerrin Sr. (March 19, 1921 – November 24, 2006) was an American operatic baritone and the first African-American man to sing at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. His voice was described by critic Albert Goldberg in the '' ...
, and many others. Other celebrated singers who debuted at the Met during Bing's tenure include:
Roberta Peters
Roberta Peters (May 4, 1930 – January 18, 2017) was an American coloratura soprano.
One of the most prominent American singers to achieve lasting fame and success in opera, Peters is noted for her 35-year association with the Metropolitan Oper ...
,
Victoria de los Ángeles,
Renata Tebaldi,
Maria Callas, who had a bitter falling out with Bing over repertoire,,
Birgit Nilsson,
Joan Sutherland,
Régine Crespin,
Mirella Freni
Mirella Freni, OMRI (, born Mirella Fregni, 27 February 1935 – 9 February 2020) was an Italian operatic soprano who had a career of 50 years and appeared at major international opera houses. She received international attention at the Gl ...
,
Renata Scotto
Renata Scotto (born 24 February 1934) is an Italian soprano and opera director.
Recognized for her sense of style, her musicality, and as a remarkable singer-actress, Scotto is considered one of the preeminent singers of her generation.
Since ...
,
Montserrat Caballé,
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
Dame Olga Maria Elisabeth Friederike Schwarzkopf, (9 December 19153 August 2006) was a German-born Austro-British soprano. She was among the foremost singers of lieder, and is renowned for her performances of Viennese operetta, as well as the op ...
,
Anna Moffo,
James McCracken,
Carlo Bergonzi,
Franco Corelli,
Alfredo Kraus
Alfredo Kraus Trujillo (; 24 November 192710 September 1999) was a distinguished Spanish tenor from the Canary islands (known professionally as Alfredo Kraus), particularly known for the artistry he brought to opera's bel canto roles. He wa ...
,
Plácido Domingo,
Nicolai Gedda,
Luciano Pavarotti,
Jon Vickers
Jonathan Stewart Vickers, (October 29, 1926 – July 10, 2015), known professionally as Jon Vickers, was a Canadian heldentenor.
Born in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, he was the sixth in a family of eight children. In 1950, he was awarded a ...
,
Tito Gobbi,
Sherrill Milnes, and
Cesare Siepi.
The Met's 1961 production of ''
Turandot
''Turandot'' (; see below) is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, posthumously completed by Franco Alfano in 1926, and set to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni. ''Turandot'' best-known aria is " Nessun dorma", ...
'', with
Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Anthony Stokowski (18 April 1882 – 13 September 1977) was a British conductor. One of the leading conductors of the early and mid-20th century, he is best known for his long association with the Philadelphia Orchestra and his appear ...
conducting,
Birgit Nilsson in the title role, and
Franco Corelli as Calàf, was by May called the Met's "Biggest hit in 10 years." For the 1962/1963 season,
Renata Tebaldi, popular with Met audiences, convinced a reluctant Bing to stage a revival of
Adriana Lecouvreur, 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 The Metropolitan Opera National Company (MONC) was a short lived American opera company that operated from 1965 to 1967 as a second touring company of the Metropolitan Opera that featured American and Canadian artists in their early stages of career ...
(MONC); a second touring company that would present operas nationally with young operatic talent.
Supported by President
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...
and funded largely by donations given by philanthropist and publisher
Lila Acheson Wallace, 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
Risë Stevens (; June 11, 1913 – March 20, 2013) was an American operatic mezzo-soprano and actress. Beginning in 1938, she sang for the Metropolitan Opera in New York City for more than two decades during the 1940s and 1950s. She was most ...
and
Michael Manuel, a long time stage manager and director at the Met.
Several well known opera singers performed with the MONC, including sopranos
Clarice Carson,
Maralin Niska,
Mary Beth Peil
Mary Beth Peil (born June 25, 1940) is an American actress and soprano. She began her career as an opera singer in 1962 with the Goldovsky Opera Theater. In 1964 she won two major singing competitions, the Young Concert Artists International Au ...
,
Francesca Roberto, and
Marilyn Zschau; mezzo-sopranos
Joy Davidson, Sylvia Friederich, Dorothy Krebill, and
Huguette Tourangeau; tenors
Enrico Di Giuseppe, Chris Lachona, Nicholas di Virgilio, and
Harry Theyard; baritones
Ron Bottcher,
John Fiorito,
Thomas Jamerson,
Julian Patrick, and Vern Shinall; bass-baritones
Andrij Dobriansky, Ronald Hedlund, and
Arnold Voketaitis; and bass
Paul Plishka.
During Bing's tenure, the officers of the Met joined forces with the officers of the
New York 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 ...
to build the
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, 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’s ''
Mourning Becomes Electra''. However, the company would not premiere any new operas for decades afterwards, until 1991's ''
The Ghosts of Versailles'' by
John Corigliano. 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's ''
Antony and Cleopatra'' 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, died in an auto accident before the start of his first season. Following Gentele's tragic loss came
Schuyler Chapin
Schuyler Garrison Chapin (February 13, 1923 – March 7, 2009) was a General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera, and later Commissioner of Cultural Affairs for New York City during the administration of Mayor Rudy Giuliani. He also served as the de ...
, 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'', ''
Carmen'', and ''
La bohème
''La bohème'' (; ) is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions '' quadri'', '' tableaux'' or "images", rather than ''atti'' (acts). composed by Giacomo Puccini between 1893 and 1895 to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giusep ...
''; including
Marilyn Horne
Marilyn Horne (born January 16, 1934) is an American mezzo-soprano opera singer. She specialized in roles requiring beauty of tone, excellent breath support, and the ability to execute difficult coloratura passages. She is a recipient of the Natio ...
as Carmen,
Joan Sutherland as Violetta, and tenors
Franco Corelli and
Luciano Pavarotti alternating as Rodolfo. Soprano
Renata Tebaldi retired from the Met in 1973 as Desdemona in
Verdi's ''
Otello'', 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
James Lawrence Levine (; June 23, 1943 – March 9, 2021) was an American conductor and pianist. He was music director of the Metropolitan Opera from 1976 to 2016. He was terminated from all his positions and affiliations with the Met on March 1 ...
), and Director of Production (English stage director
John Dexter
John Dexter (2 August 1925 – 23 March 1990) was an English theatre, opera and film director.
Theatre
Born in Derby, Derbyshire, England, Dexter left school at the age of fourteen to serve in the British Army during the Second World War. F ...
). Bliss was followed by Bruce Crawford and
Hugh Southern. 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'', with soprano
Jessye Norman
Jessye Mae Norman (September 15, 1945 – September 30, 2019) was an American opera singer and recitalist. She was able to perform dramatic soprano roles, but refused to be limited to that voice type. A commanding presence on operatic, concert ...
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 Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
. 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 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
Kathleen Deanna Battle (born August 13, 1948) is an American operatic soprano known for her distinctive vocal range and tone. Born in Portsmouth, Ohio, Battle initially became known for her work within the concert repertoire through performance ...
, who in 1977 made her Met debut as the Shepherd in Wagner's ''
Tannhäuser
Tannhäuser (; gmh, Tanhûser), often stylized, "The Tannhäuser," was a German Minnesinger and traveling poet. Historically, his biography, including the dates he lived, is obscure beyond the poetry, which suggests he lived between 1245 and ...
'', became an important star in lyric soprano roles. Bass-baritone
Simon Estes 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
Valery Abisalovich Gergiev (russian: Вале́рий Абиса́лович Ге́ргиев, ; os, Гергиты Абисалы фырт Валери, Gergity Abisaly fyrt Valeri; born 2 May 1953) is a Russian conductor and opera company d ...
, who was then the chief conductor and artistic director of the
Mariinsky Theatre
The Mariinsky Theatre ( rus, Мариинский театр, Mariinskiy teatr, also transcribed as Maryinsky or Mariyinsky) is a historic theatre of opera and ballet in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Opened in 1860, it became the preeminent music th ...
, as Principal Guest Conductor in 1997 and broadened the Met's Russian repertory.
Marcelo Álvarez,
Gabriela Beňačková,
Diana Damrau
Diana Damrau (; born 31 May 1971) is a German soprano who achieved international fame for her performances, primarily in opera, but also in concert and lieder. She has been successful in coloratura soprano roles since her early career, and gradua ...
,
Natalie Dessay
Natalie Dessay (; born 19 April 1965) is a French singer, known for her former career as an operatic soprano. She gained wide recognition after her portrayal of Olympia in ''The Tales of Hoffmann'' in 1992, and then performing at leading stages, ...
,
Renée Fleming,
Juan Diego Flórez
Juan Diego Flórez (born Juan Diego Flórez Salom, January 13, 1973) is a Peruvian operatic tenor, particularly known for his roles in bel canto operas. On June 4, 2007, he received his country's highest decoration, the ''Knight Grand Cross in t ...
,
Marcello Giordani,
Angela Gheorghiu,
Susan Graham
Susan Graham (born July 23, 1960) is an American mezzo-soprano.
Life and career
Susan Graham was born in Roswell, New Mexico on July 23, 1960. Raised in Midland, Texas, Graham is a graduate of Texas Tech University and the Manhattan School of ...
,
Ben Heppner,
Dmitri Hvorostovsky
Dmitri Aleksandrovich Hvorostovsky (russian: Дми́трий Алекса́ндрович Хворосто́вский, ; 16 October 1962 – 22 November 2017) was a Russian operatic baritone. Early life and education
Hvorostovsky was born i ...
,
Salvatore Licitra,
Anna Netrebko,
René Pape,
Neil Rosenshein,
Bryn Terfel
Sir Bryn Terfel Jones, (; born 9 November 1965) (known professionally as Bryn Terfel) is a Welsh bass-baritone opera and concert singer. Terfel was initially associated with the roles of Mozart, particularly '' Figaro'', '' Leporello'' and '' ...
, and
Deborah Voigt
Deborah Voigt (born August 4, 1960) is an American dramatic soprano who has sung roles in operas by Wagner and Richard Strauss.
Biography and career
Early life and education
Debbie Joy Voigt was born into a religious Southern Baptist family ...
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
Peter Gelb (born 1953) is an American arts administrator. Since August 2006, he has been General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.
Career
Early career
While in high school, Gelb began his association with the Metropolitan Opera ...
, 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'' by the English director
Anthony Minghella
Anthony Minghella, (6 January 195418 March 2008) was a British film director, playwright and screenwriter. He was chairman of the board of Governors at the British Film Institute between 2003 and 2007.
He won the Academy Award for Best Directo ...
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
(also known as ) is a form of traditional Japanese puppet theatre, founded in Osaka in the beginning of the 17th century, which is still performed in the modern day. Three kinds of performers take part in a performance: the or (puppeteers ...
-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
Bartlett B. Sher (born March 27, 1959) is an American theatre director. '' The New York Times'' has described him as "one of the most original and exciting directors, not only in the American theater but also in the international world of opera" ...
,
Mary Zimmerman, and
Jack O'Brien joined the list of the Met's directors along with Stephen Wadsworth, Willy Decker,
Laurent Pelly,
Luc Bondy
Luc Bondy (17 July 1948 – 28 November 2015) was a Swiss theatre and film director.
Life and career
upright=1.3, '' Charlotte Salomon'' at the Salzburg Festival 2014
Trained in Paris with the theatre teacher Jacques Lecoq, he received a job ...
and other opera directors to create new stagings for the company.
Robert Lepage
Robert Lepage (born December 12, 1957) is a Canadian playwright, actor, film director, and stage director.
Early life
Lepage was raised in Quebec City. At age five, he was diagnosed with a rare form of alopecia, which caused complete hair l ...
, the Canadian director of
Cirque du Soleil, was engaged by the Met to direct a revival of ''
Der Ring des Nibelungen
(''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 '' Nibe ...
'' 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,
Lawrence Brownlee
Lawrence Brownlee (born November 24, 1972) is an American operatic tenor particularly associated with the bel canto repertoire. Describing his voice, Speight Jenkins, general director of the Seattle Opera, said: "There are other singers that sing ...
,
Joseph Calleja,
Elīna Garanča,
Jonas Kaufmann
Jonas Kaufmann (born 10 July 1969) is a German operatic tenor. He is best known for the versatility of his repertoire, performing a variety of opera roles in multiple languages in recitalTommasini, Anthony (21 February 2014)"A Tenor Finds Energy ...
,
Mariusz Kwiecień. Debuting conductors included
Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, CC (; born Yannick Séguin;David Patrick Stearns, "Nezet-Seguin signs Philadelphia Orchestra contract". ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', 19 June 2010. 6 March 1975) is a Canadian ( Québécois) conductor and pianist. He ...
,
Andris Nelsons
Andris Nelsons (born 18 November 1978) is a Latvian conductor who is currently the music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the ''Gewandhauskapellmeister'' of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. He has previously served as music directo ...
, and
Fabio Luisi. 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
John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before his presidency, he was a leader of t ...
's opera ''
The Death of Klinghoffer
''The Death of Klinghoffer'' is an American opera, with music by John Adams to an English-language libretto by Alice Goodman. First produced in Brussels and New York in 1991, the opera is based on the hijacking of the passenger liner ''Achille ...
'', 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
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, CC (; born Yannick Séguin;David Patrick Stearns, "Nezet-Seguin signs Philadelphia Orchestra contract". ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', 19 June 2010. 6 March 1975) is a Canadian ( Québécois) conductor and pianist. He ...
, who was then the music director of the
Philadelphia Orchestra, 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
James Lawrence Levine (; June 23, 1943 – March 9, 2021) was an American conductor and pianist. He was music director of the Metropolitan Opera from 1976 to 2016. He was terminated from all his positions and affiliations with the Met on March 1 ...
with regard to
sexual abuse
Sexual abuse or sex abuse, also referred to as molestation, is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using force or by taking advantage of another. Molestation often refers to an instance of sexual assa ...
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 Met would be severing ties with all staff and employees who are supporters of Russian President
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...
. The same night, before the premiere of Verdi's ''
Don Carlos'', the Met's chorus and orchestra performed the "
State Anthem of Ukraine
"" ( uk, Ще не вмерла України і слава, і воля, , lit=The glory and freedom of Ukraine has not yet perished), also known by its official title of "State Anthem of Ukraine" (, ') or by its shortened form "" (, ), is the ...
". Among the singers was Ukrainian bass-baritone
Vladyslav Buialskyi, 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
Anna Netrebko 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
This is a list of the Permanent Representatives of Ukraine to the United Nations. Permanent Representative is the head of the permanent mission of Ukraine to the United Nations.
History
On 26 June 1945, the Charter of the United Nations was s ...
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 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 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.
Tessitura software
In 1998, Volpe initiated the development of a new software application, now called
Tessitura
In music, tessitura (, pl. ''tessiture'', "texture"; ) is the most acceptable and comfortable vocal range for a given singer or less frequently, musical instrument, the range in which a given type of voice presents its best-sounding (or characte ...
. 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 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''. 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
''Tristan und Isolde'' (''Tristan and Isolde''), WWV 90, is an opera in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the 12th-century romance Tristan and Iseult by Gottfried von Strassburg. It was comp ...
'' with Frida Leider and
Lauritz Melchior
Lauritz Melchior (20 March 1890 – 18 March 1973) was a Danish-American opera singer. He was the preeminent Richard Wagner, Wagnerian tenor of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s and has come to be considered the quintessence of his voice type. Late i ...
.
The live broadcasts were originally heard on
NBC
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 ...
Radio's
Blue Network and continued on the Blue Network's successor,
ABC, 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
The Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission (CRBC), also referred to as the Canadian Radio Commission (CRC), was Canada's first public broadcaster and the immediate precursor to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Origins
The CRBC was establis ...
and, since 1934, on its successor, the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government. ...
where they are currently heard on
CBC Music.
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. 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
The American Tobacco Company was a tobacco company founded in 1890 by J. B. Duke through a merger between a number of U.S. tobacco manufacturers including Allen and Ginter and Goodwin & Company. The company was one of the original 12 members ...
, 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
Texaco, Inc. ("The Texas Company") is an American oil brand owned and operated by Chevron Corporation. Its flagship product is its fuel "Texaco with Techron". It also owned the Havoline motor oil brand. Texaco was an independent company unt ...
) began on December 7, 1940, with
Mozart's ''
Le nozze di Figaro
''The Marriage of Figaro'' ( it, Le nozze di Figaro, links=no, ), K. 492, is a ''commedia per musica'' (opera buffa) in four acts composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with an Italian libretto written by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It premie ...
''. 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
Milton John Cross (April 16, 1897 – January 3, 1975) was an American radio announcer famous for his work on the NBC and ABC radio networks.
He was best known as the voice of the Metropolitan Opera, hosting its Saturday afternoon radio broadca ...
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 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.
Beginning in January 2015, producer
Mary Jo Heath filled in for Juntwait, who was being treated for cancer and died in June 2015.
In September 2015 Heath took over as the new permanent host. Opera singer and director Ira Siff has for several years been the commentator along with Juntwait or Heath.
Satellite radio
Metropolitan Opera Radio is a 24-hour opera channel on
Sirius XM Radio
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 ...
, 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
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 I ...
archives. The channel was created in September 2006, when the Met initiated a multi-year relationship with Sirius.
Margaret Juntwait 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 ''
Otello'' was broadcast live on
ABC-TV with
Ramón Vinay,
Licia Albanese, and
Leonard Warren
Leonard Warren (April 21, 1911 – March 4, 1960) was an American opera singer. A baritone, he was a leading artist for many years with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Especially noted for his portrayals of the leading baritone roles in ...
. 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 transmissions to movie theaters. The first of these was a performance of ''
Carmen'' with
Risë Stevens
Risë Stevens (; June 11, 1913 – March 20, 2013) was an American operatic mezzo-soprano and actress. Beginning in 1938, she sang for the Metropolitan Opera in New York City for more than two decades during the 1940s and 1950s. She was most ...
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
''La bohème'' (; ) is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions '' quadri'', '' tableaux'' or "images", rather than ''atti'' (acts). composed by Giacomo Puccini between 1893 and 1895 to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giusep ...
'' with
Renata Scotto
Renata Scotto (born 24 February 1934) is an Italian soprano and opera director.
Recognized for her sense of style, her musicality, and as a remarkable singer-actress, Scotto is considered one of the preeminent singers of her generation.
Since ...
and
Luciano Pavarotti. The new series of opera on
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
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'' in 1989. In 2007 another Met television series debuted on PBS, ''
Great Performances at the Met''. This series airs repeat showings of the
high-definition video performances produced for the ''
Metropolitan Opera Live in HD'' cinema series.
In addition to complete operas and gala concerts, television programs produced at the Met have included: an episode of ''
Omnibus'' with Leonard Bernstein (
NBC
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 ...
, 1958); ''
Danny Kaye's Look-In at the Metropolitan Opera'' (
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
, 1975); ''
Sills and
Burnett at the Met'' (CBS, 1976); and the ''
MTV Video Music Award
The MTV Video Music Awards (commonly abbreviated as the VMAs) is an award show presented by the cable channel MTV to honour the best in the music video medium. Originally conceived as an alternative to the Grammy Awards (in the video categor ...
s'' (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) 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
Julie Taymor (born December 15, 1952) is an American director and writer of theater, opera and film. Her stage adaptation of ''The Lion King'' debuted in 1997, and received eleven Tony Award nominations, with Taymor receiving Tony Awards for Best ...
'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 Puritans'') is an 1835 opera by Vincenzo Bellini. It was originally written in two acts and later changed to three acts on the advice of Gioachino Rossini, with whom the young composer had become friends. The music was set to a libretto ...
'', ''
The First Emperor'', ''
Eugene Onegin
''Eugene Onegin, A Novel in Verse'' (Reforms of Russian orthography, pre-reform Russian: ; post-reform rus, Евгений Оне́гин, ромáн в стихáх, p=jɪvˈɡʲenʲɪj ɐˈnʲeɡʲɪn, r=Yevgeniy Onegin, roman v stikhakh) is ...
'', ''
The Barber of Seville'', and ''
Il trittico
''Il trittico'' (''The Triptych'') is the title of a collection of three one-act operas, ''Il tabarro'', '' Suor Angelica'', and '' Gianni Schicchi'', by Giacomo Puccini. The work received its world premiere at the Metropolitan Opera on 14 Decemb ...
''. 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
Sirius Satellite Radio was a satellite radio (SDARS) and online radio service operating in North America, owned by Sirius XM Holdings.
Headquartered in New York City, with smaller studios in Los Angeles and Memphis, Sirius was officially lau ...
.
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
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' 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
' (''The Daughter of the Regiment'') is an opéra comique in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti, set to a French libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Jean-François Bayard. It was first performed on 11 February 1840 by the Paris Opéra ...
'' 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, and for purchase on
iTunes.
The
Metropolitan Opera Radio channel on
Sirius XM Radio
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 ...
(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 COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
, the Met cancelled the season's remaining performances but
live streamed 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 to mark the 20th anniversary of
9/11. On October 24, 2022, the Met, in conjunction with the
NY Philharmonic and
Carnegie Hall 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
Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust ( 1480–1540).
The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a pact with the Devil at a crossroa ...
''.
It was located at 1411
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
between 39th and 40th Streets and was designed by
J. Cleaveland Cady. 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
The construction of the Rockefeller Center complex in New York City was conceived as an urban renewal project in the late 1920s, spearheaded by John D. Rockefeller Jr. to help revitalize Midtown Manhattan. Rockefeller Center is on one of Colum ...
. 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. 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, ''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
Samuel Barber's ''
Antony and Cleopatra''.
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. 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
Oscar Hammerstein I (8 May 18461 August 1919) was a German-born businessman, theater impresario, and composer in New York City. His passion for opera led him to open several opera houses, and he rekindled opera's popularity in America. He was ...
, 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
Tannhäuser (; gmh, Tanhûser), often stylized, "The Tannhäuser," was a German Minnesinger and traveling poet. Historically, his biography, including the dates he lived, is obscure beyond the poetry, which suggests he lived between 1245 and ...
'' starring
Leo Slezak and
Olive Fremstad.
The Philadelphia Met was designed by noted theater architect
William H. McElfatrick 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,
Auguste Vianesi, 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
Rafael Jeroným Kubelík, KBE (29 June 1914 – 11 August 1996) was a Czech conductor and composer.
Son of a well-known violinist, Jan Kubelík, he was trained in Prague, and made his debut with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of ...
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
Anton Seidl (7 May 185028 March 1898) was a famous Hungarian Wagner conductor, best known for his association with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City and the New York Philharmonic.
Biography
He was born in Pest, Austria-Hungary, where ...
(1885–97)
*
Walter Damrosch (1884–1902)
*
Alfred Hertz (1902–15, leading conductor of German repertory)
*
Gustav Mahler (1908–10)
*
Arturo Toscanini (1908–15)
*
Artur Bodanzky
Artur Bodanzky (also written as Artur Bodzansky) (16 December 1877 – 23 November 1939) was an Austrian-American conductor particularly associated with the operas of Wagner. He conducted Enrico Caruso's last performance at the Metropolitan Oper ...
(1915–39, leading conductor of German repertory)
*
Tullio Serafin
Tullio Serafin (1 September 18782 February 1968) was an Italian conductor and former Musical Director at La Scala.
Biography
Tullio Serafin was a leading Italian opera conductor with a long career and a very broad repertoire who revived many 19t ...
(1924–34)
*
Fausto Cleva (1931–71)
*
Bruno Walter
Bruno Walter (born Bruno Schlesinger, September 15, 1876February 17, 1962) was a German-born conductor, pianist and composer. Born in Berlin, he escaped Nazi Germany in 1933, was naturalised as a French citizen in 1938, and settled in the U ...
(1941–51, 1956, 1959)
*
Ettore Panizza
Ettore Panizza (born Héctor Panizza; 12 August 187527 November 1967) was an Argentine conductor and composer, one of the leading conductors of the early 20th century. Panizza possessed technical mastery and was popular and influential during ...
(1934–42, leading conductor of Italian repertory)
*
Erich Leinsdorf
Erich Leinsdorf (born Erich Landauer; February 4, 1912 – September 11, 1993) was an Austrian-born American conductor. He performed and recorded with leading orchestras and opera companies throughout the United States and Europe, earning a ...
(1938–42, leading conductor of German repertory)
*
George Szell
George Szell (; June 7, 1897 – July 30, 1970), originally György Széll, György Endre Szél, or Georg Szell, was a Hungarian-born American conductor and composer. He is widely considered one of the twentieth century's greatest condu ...
(1942–46)
*
Cesare Sodero (1942–47)
*
Fritz Busch (1945–49)
*
Fritz Reiner
Frederick Martin "Fritz" Reiner (December 19, 1888 – November 15, 1963) was a prominent conductor of opera and symphonic music in the twentieth century. Hungarian born and trained, he emigrated to the United States in 1922, where he rose to ...
(1949–53)
*
Dimitri Mitropoulos
Dimitri Mitropoulos ( el, Δημήτρης Μητρόπουλος; The dates 18 February 1896 and 1 March 1896 both appear in the literature. Many of Mitropoulos's early interviews and program notes gave 18 February. In his later interviews, howe ...
(1954–60)
*
Erich Leinsdorf
Erich Leinsdorf (born Erich Landauer; February 4, 1912 – September 11, 1993) was an Austrian-born American conductor. He performed and recorded with leading orchestras and opera companies throughout the United States and Europe, earning a ...
(1957–62)
*
Kurt Adler
Kurt Adler (March 1, 1907September 21, 1977) was an Austrian classical chorus master, music conductor, author and pianist. He was best known as the chorus master and lead conductor of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City from 1943 to 1973. H ...
(1943–73, chorus master and conductor)
*
Rafael Kubelík
Rafael Jeroným Kubelík, KBE (29 June 1914 – 11 August 1996) was a Czech conductor and composer.
Son of a well-known violinist, Jan Kubelík, he was trained in Prague, and made his debut with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of ...
(music director 1973–74)
*
James Levine
James Lawrence Levine (; June 23, 1943 – March 9, 2021) was an American conductor and pianist. He was music director of the Metropolitan Opera from 1976 to 2016. He was terminated from all his positions and affiliations with the Met on March 1 ...
(music director 1976–2016; artistic director 1986–2004; music director emeritus 2016–2017)
*
Valery Gergiev
Valery Abisalovich Gergiev (russian: Вале́рий Абиса́лович Ге́ргиев, ; os, Гергиты Абисалы фырт Валери, Gergity Abisaly fyrt Valeri; born 2 May 1953) is a Russian conductor and opera company d ...
(principal guest conductor 1997–2008)
*
Fabio Luisi (principal guest conductor 2010–2011; principal conductor 2011–2017)
*
Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, CC (; born Yannick Séguin;David Patrick Stearns, "Nezet-Seguin signs Philadelphia Orchestra contract". ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', 19 June 2010. 6 March 1975) is a Canadian ( Québécois) conductor and pianist. He ...
(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
Martha (Hebrew: מָרְתָא) is a biblical figure described in the Gospels of Luke and John. Together with her siblings Lazarus and Mary of Bethany, she is described as living in the village of Bethany near Jerusalem. She was witness ...
''. 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,
Herbert Witherspoon, the incoming General Manager suffered a heart attack and died at his desk.
On March 4, 1960, leading baritone
Leonard Warren
Leonard Warren (April 21, 1911 – March 4, 1960) was an American opera singer. A baritone, he was a leading artist for many years with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Especially noted for his portrayals of the leading baritone roles in ...
died of a heart attack onstage after completing the aria "Urna fatale" in act two of Verdi's ''
La forza del destino''. 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
''Il trovatore'' ('The Troubadour') is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto largely written by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play ''El trovador'' (1836) by Antonio García Gutiérrez. It was García Gutiérrez's mos ...
'' 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
An intermission, also known as an interval in British and Indian English, is a recess between parts of a performance or production, such as for a theatrical play, opera, concert, or film screening. It should not be confused with an entr'acte ( ...
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 died while playing the role of Vitek during the production of
Leoš Janáček
Leoš Janáček (, baptised Leo Eugen Janáček; 3 July 1854 – 12 August 1928) was a Czech composer, musical theorist, folklorist, publicist, and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian and other Slavic musics, including Eastern European f ...
's ''
The Makropulos Case''. 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 on January 23, 1988, during an intermission of Verdi's ''
Macbeth''.
"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 high-definition video 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
Wheeler Winston Dixon (born March 12, 1950) is an American filmmaker and scholar. He is an expert on film history, theory and criticism.Bill Goodykoontz, December 23, 2012, USA TodayDefining Tarantino Accessed Aug. 25, 2013, Quote = "...long, invo ...
, 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
Wheeler Winston Dixon (born March 12, 1950) is an American filmmaker and scholar. He is an expert on film history, theory and criticism.Bill Goodykoontz, December 23, 2012, USA TodayDefining Tarantino Accessed Aug. 25, 2013, Quote = "...long, invo ...
.
Notes
References
Further reading
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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 Sirius XM
The Metropolitan Opera
at Google Arts & Culture
"The New Stage of the Metropolitan Opera House, Rebuilt for the Production of ''Parsifal''"
''Scientific American
''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it ...
'' (1904).
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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)