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Metropolitan Opera

The Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, seen from Lincoln Center Plaza

The Metropolitan Opera Association of New York City, founded in April 1880, is a major presenter of all types of opera including Grand Opera. Peter Gelb is the company's general manager and James Levine is music director.

The Metropolitan Opera is America's largest classical music organization, and annually presents some 220 opera performances. The home of the company, the Metropolitan Opera House is one of the premier opera stages in the world, considered by some as one of the best and is among the biggest in the world. The Met, as it is commonly called, is one of the twelve resident organizations at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

The Met presents a wide array of about twenty-seven operas each year in a season which lasts from mid-September through May. The operas are presented in a rotating repertory schedule with seven performances of four different works presented each week. Performances are given in the evening Monday through Saturday with a matinee on Saturday. Several new opera productions are offered each season. Sometimes these are borrowed from or shared with other major opera houses. The rest are given in revivals of productions from previous seasons.

The Met's huge performing company consists of a large symphony-sized orchestra, a chorus, children's choir, ballet company, and many supporting and leading solo singers. The Met's roster of singers is drawn from the ranks of the world's most famous artists. Some of its singers' careers have been developed by the Met itself through its young artists programs. Others have been engaged from companies around the world. Most leading opera artists consider an engagement at the Met as a key part of their career and a number, such as Renee Fleming and Placido Domingo, have made the Met their artistic home.

The Met's artistic standards are acknowledged to be among the highest in the world. The orchestra is considered to be one the finest anywhere. The company's stage facilities and technical staff offer leading directors and designers a state of the art environment in which to create any kind of production. The Met's production designs range from elegant and traditional to highly innovative and avant-garde.
Beyond performing in the opera house in New York, the Met has gradually expanded its audience as new technologies have become available. It has broadcast live weekly on radio since 1931 and has regularly presented performances on television since 1977. In 2006, the Met further introduced the innovations of live satellite radio broadcasts four times a week and live high-definition video transmissions presented to audiences in cinemas throughout the world.

History of the Company

A full house at the old Metropolitan Opera House, seen from the rear of the stage, at the Metropolitan Opera House for a concert by pianist Jozef Hofmann, November 28, 1937.

The Metropolitan Opera Association was founded in 1880 to create an alternative to the Academy of Music. The Academy represented the highest social circle in New York society, and the board of directors were loath to admit members of new wealthy families into their circle. The initial group of subscribers included the Morgan, Roosevelt, Astor and Vanderbilt families. Their creation, The Metropolitan Opera, has long outlasted the Academy. Henry Abbey served as manager for the inaugural season 1883-84 which opened with a performance of Gounod's Faust on October 22, 1883 starring the Swedish soprano Christine Nilsson.

Following Abbey's inaugural season, which had resulted in very large deficits, operas were given by a "pick-up" ensemble of relatively inexpensive German singers (which nevertheless included some of the most celebrated singers in Germany) who performed an international repertory, albeit in German.

This anomalous situation terminated at the time of the Great Fire, following which the Golden Age of Opera arrived at the Metropolitan under the celebrated management of Maurice Grau 1892-1903. The greatest (and most highly paid) operatic artists in the world then graced the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House, notably the brothers Jean and Edouard de Reszke, Lilli Lehmann, Lillian Nordica, Nellie Melba, Milka Trnina, Emma Eames, Sofia Scalchi, Eugenia Mantelli, Jean Lassalle, Mario Ancona, Victor Maurel, Antonio Scotti and Pol Plancon.

From 1898 to 1986, the Metropolitan Opera went on a six-week tour following its season in New York. These were cancelled because of financial losses.

Lionel Mapleson (1865–1937), a violinist and librarian of the Metropolitan, made the first recordings of live performances at the Metropolitan. From 1900 to 1904, Lionel Mapleson set up an Edison cylinder machine in the Metropolitan Opera House to record excerpts of performances. These cylinders, known as the Mapleson Cylinders, preserve an early audio glimpse of the Met and are the only known extant recordings of some performers, including Jean de Reszke. 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 still retain remarkable sound, particularly of choruses such as 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 soloists, chorus, and orchestra, as well as the audience's applause. Many of the original cylinders are preserved in the Rodgers & Hammestein Archives of Recorded Sound at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

The administration of Heinrich Conried in 1903–1908, which saw the arrival of Enrico Caruso, unquestionably the most celebrated singer who ever appeared at the Old Metropolitan, was followed by the 25-year reign, 1908-1935 of the magisterial Giulio Gatti-Casazza, whose model planning, authoritative organizational skills and brilliant casts raised the level of Metropolitan Opera to a prolonged and unforgettable Silver Age. A prominent lawyer Paul Cravath became Chairman of the Met. in 1931.

Again, the greatest singers and conductors appeared at the Met. At one point, both Arturo Toscanini and Gustav Mahler were regular conductors at the Met.

The noted Canadian operatic tenor, Edward Johnson, was general manager between 1935 and 1950, successfully guiding the company through the dark years of the Depression and World War II. Zinka Milanov, Jussi Bjorling, Richard Tucker and Robert Merrill were first heard at the Met under his management. Sir Thomas Beecham, George Szell and Bruno Walter were among the great conductors of the Johnson era.

The Austrian-born Rudolf Bing, was the one of the Met's most influential leaders. His tenure as general manager from 1950 to 1972 was, so far, the longest in Met history. Bing modernized the administration of the Company, ended an archaic ticket sales system, and ended the Company's weekly one-night stands in Philadelphia. He presided over an era of great singing and glittering new productions, and guided the company's move to a new home in Lincoln Center. Among the many great artists Sir Rudolf introduced to New York audiences were Maria Callas, Leonie Rysanek, Birgit Nilsson, Renata Tebaldi, Christa Ludwig, Renata Scotto, Dame Joan Sutherland, Lisa Della Casa, Victoria de los Angeles, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Montserrat Caballe, Mirella Freni, Mario del Monaco, Franco Corelli, Carlo Bergonzi, Nicolai Gedda, Placido Domingo, Jon Vickers, Sherrill Milnes, Giorgio Tozzi and Cesare Siepi. Critics of Bing complained of a lack of great conducting during his regime, but he did offer such fine conductors as Fritz Stiedry, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Pierre Monteux, Erich Leinsdorf, Fritz Reiner, Karl Bohm and Herbert von Karajan.

Among the achievements of Bing's tenure was the integration of the Met's artistic roster. Marian Anderson's historic 1955 debut was followed by the introduction of a whole generation of fine African-American artists led by Leontyne Price (who inaugurated the new house in Lincoln Center), Grace Bumbry, Shirley Verrett, George Shirley, and many others.

Following Bing's retirement in 1972, the Met's management was overseen by a succession of executives. Bing's intended successor, the Swedish opera manager Goran Gentele, tragically died in an auto accident before the start of his first season. Following Gentele, there were Schuyler Chapin, Anthony Bliss, Bruce Crawford and Hugh Southern. All of these men led the Met in partnership with Music Director James Levine, the Met's guiding artistic force through the last third of the 20th century.

Joseph Volpe was the Met's second-longest serving manager, 1990-2006. He was the first head of the Met to advance from within the ranks of the company, having started his career there as a carpenter in 1964. Volpe expanded the Met's international touring activities and inaugurated the orchestra's Carnegie Hall series. During his tenure 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 named Valery Gergiev as Principal Guest Conductor in 1997 and broadened the Met's Russian repertory. Cecilia Bartoli, Diana Damrau, Natalie Dessay, Renee Fleming, Juan Diego Florez, Marcello Giordani, Angela Gheorghiu, Susan Graham, Ben Heppner, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Salvatore Licitra, Anna Netrebko, Rene Pape, Bryn Terfel and Deborah Voigt were among the artists first heard at the Met under his management.

The current General Manager is Peter Gelb. He began outlining his plans for the future in April 2006; these included more new productions each year, ideas for shaving staging costs and attracting new audiences without deterring existing opera-lovers (whose average age at the Met is over 60) Gelb saw these issues as crucial for an organization which, to a far greater extent than any of the other great opera theatres of the world, is dependent on private financing.

Gelb began his tenure by opening the 2006-2007 season with a colorful and highly stylized new production of Madama Butterfly by the English director Anthony Minghella. Minghella's highly theatrical concept featured vividly colored banners on a spare stage allowing the focus to be on the detailed acting of the singers. The abstract concept included casting the son of Cio-Cio-San as a bunraku-style puppet, operated in plain sight by three puppeteers clothed in black.

Until the late 1990s, the Metropolitan Opera was rather traditional in its new production designs. Recently, following the influence originating from Patrice Chereau and trends already established in many other opera houses around the world (particularly those in Europe), that tradition seems to be changing and traditionally-designed operas are becoming rarer at the Met.

In the 1990s, only limited productions used a symbolic type of scenery (starting from Der Fliegende Hollander in 1989; then Samson et Dalila in 1998; and Tristan und Isolde). For The Rake's Progress in 1999 and Mefistofele in 2000, contemporary style business-like suits were used for the main characters (in operas which were supposed to be set centuries before). Similar things occurred in La Juive (2003) Salome (2004).

The trend towards "modernization" continued further under the new management in 2007 when a flushing toilet was used during the new production of Gianni Schicchi (for a work which is supposed to take place in the year 1299). Victorian era costumes and surroundings were adopted as the scenery for 17th century Scotland in Lucia di Lammermoor. Similarly, even greater contrast existed with the substitution of the original Scotland of the early Middle Ages for a mixture of 20th century items of clothing (including tuxedos, etc.) in a new production of Macbeth or such oddity as WWI outfit plus punching in anger on piano keyboard with fists (or open palms) during the recent (2008) production of La fille du regiment.

The Metropolitan Opera in 1905, looking uptown

The "Old Met"

The first Metropolitan Opera House opened on October 22, 1883, with a performance of Faust. It was located on 1411 Broadway, occupying the whole block between West 39th Street and West 40th Street on the west side of the street in the Garment District of Midtown. Nicknamed "The Yellow Brick Brewery" for its industrial looking exterior, the original Metropolitan Opera House was designed by J. Cleaveland Cady. On August 27, 1892 the nine-year-old theater was gutted by fire. The 1892-93 season was canceled while the opera house was rebuilt along its original lines.

In 1903 the interior of the opera house was extensively redesigned by the architects Carrere and Hastings. The familiar golden auditorium with its sunburst chandelier, and curved proscenium inscribed with the names of six composers (Gluck, Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner, Gounod and Verdi), dates from this time. The first of the Met's signature gold damask stage curtains was installed in 1906, completing the look that the old Metropolitan Opera House maintained until its closing.

In 1940 ownership of the opera house shifted from the wealthy families who occupied the theater's boxes to the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association. At this time the last major change to the auditorium's interior was completed. The second tier of privately held boxes (the "grand tier") was converted into standard row seating. This enlarged the seating capacity and left only the first tier of boxes from the "golden horseshoe" of the opera house's origins as a showplace for New York society.

While the theater was noted for its excellent acoustics and elegant interior, as early as the turn of the century the backstage facilities were deemed to be severely inadequate for a large opera company. The Met's scenery and sets were a regular sight leaning against the building outside on 39th Street where they had to be shifted between performances. Various plans were put forward over the years to build a new home for the company and designs for new opera houses were created by various architects including Joseph Urban. Proposed new locations included Columbus Circle and what is now Rockefeller Center, but none of these plans came to fruition. Only with the development of Lincoln Center on New York's Upper West Side did the Met finally have the opportunity to build a modern opera house.

The old Met closed on April 16, 1966 with a sentimental gala farewell performance featuring nearly all of the company's current leading artists. Zinka Milanov made her last Met appearance that night, and among the many invited guests was soprano Anna Case who had made her debut at the house in 1906. The original building, having failed to obtain landmark status, was razed in 1967. It was replaced by a modern office building intended to provide a steady income for the opera company.

The Met at Lincoln Center

The present Metropolitan Opera House, with approximately 3,800 seats, is located at Lincoln Center at Lincoln Square in the Upper West Side and was designed by architect Wallace K. Harrison. Although west-east roads do not run through Lincoln Center itself, the Metropolitan Opera House is parallel to the block from West 63rd Street to West 64th Street. The rear of the House meets Amsterdam Avenue and the entrance to the Opera House is at Lincoln Center Plaza which begins at Columbus Avenue. The building is clad in white travertine and the east facade is graced with a distinctive series of five arches. On display in the lobby, and visible to the outside plaza, are two murals created for the space by Marc Chagall. The square gold proscenium is 54' wide and 54' high. The main curtain of custom-woven gold damask is the largest tab curtain in the world.

The new building opened on September 16, 1966, with the world premiere of Samuel Barber's Antony and Cleopatra. The large and highly mechanized stage and support space smoothly facilitates the rotating presentation of up to four different opera productions each week. There are 7 full stage elevators, (60' wide, with double decks) and three slipstages, the upstage one containing a 60' diameter revolve (turntable). There are 103 motorized battens (linesets) for overhead lifting and there are two 100' tall fully-enveloping cycloramas.

While the Met Opera Company is on hiatus, the Metropolitan Opera House is home to the annual Spring season of American Ballet Theatre. It is also regularly the location for touring opera and ballet companies including the Kirov, Bolshoi, and La Scala. In addition, the Met has presented recitals by Vladimir Horowitz, Kathleen Battle and others. Philip Glass's Einstein on the Beach was staged independently at the Met in 1976.

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