Read complete books and articles on: Metropolitan Opera

Metropolitan Opera Company - term used in referring collectively to the organizations that have produced opera at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York City. The original house, at West 39th Street and Broadway, was built by members of New York society who could not be accommodated with boxes at the Academy of Music. The first presentation, on Oct. 22, 1883, was Gounod's Faust. Among the early managers were Henry E. Abbey, Leopold Damrosch, Edmond Stanton, and Maurice Grau. A devastating fire prevented production of any opera during the season 1892–93, and rebuilding was undertaken by a new company, the Metropolitan Opera and Real Estate Company. The first of the galaxy of great stars to make the house famous had already appeared. There was no resident company in the season 1897–98, but the Maurice Grau Opera Company was active from 1898 to 1903, and the period was brilliant with virtuoso singers. The Conried Metropolitan Opera Company was formed in 1903, with Heinrich Conried as manager.

In Nov., 1903, Enrico Caruso made his debut and by the following season had assumed his place as the dominant figure of the company. Conried retired in 1908, and the following season saw the coming of Giulio Gatti-Casazza as director and Alfred Hertz, Gustav Mahler, and Arturo Toscanini as conductors; the name was now Metropolitan Opera Company. Toscanini's departure in 1915 was a serious artistic loss for the company. In Feb., 1935, during Gatti-Casazza's final season, Kirsten Flagstad made her debut. Herbert Witherspoon was appointed in May, 1935, to succeed Gatti-Casazza but died only a few weeks later. Edward Johnson was appointed in his place. In 1932 the Metropolitan Opera Association, Inc., was formed, and performances were thenceforth underwritten by public subscription. In 1940 the association bought the house from the Metropolitan Opera and Real Estate Company, marking the final step in transference from private to public sponsorship. In June, 1949, Rudolf Bing was appointed to succeed Johnson. A controversial figure, he brought many noted singers to the company, including Marian Anderson, Renata Tebaldi, Franco Corelli, Joan Sutherland, Maria Callas, Birgit Nilsson, Tito Gobbi, and Leontyne Price. Among the many other great stars who have appeared at the Met over its many years are Marcella Sembrich, Dame Nellie Melba, Lilli Lehman, Feodor Chaliapin, Lauritz Melchior and Luciano Pavarotti. Metropolitan Opera concerts have been a regular feature on radio since 1931 and on television since 1977.

The new Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts opened in 1966 with a premier performance of Samuel Barber's Antony and Cleopatra, written especially for the occasion. The new building featured acoustics superior to those in the old structure and a lobby decorated with murals by Marc Chagall. Bing retired in 1972. He was replaced by Goeran Gentele, who was killed in an automobile accident in July, 1972, a few weeks after he had succeeded Bing. The opera's assistant manager, Schuyler Chapin, was named manager (1972–75). From 1974 to 1981, John Dexter was director of production and Anthony Bliss executive director. Bliss then served as general manager (1981–85) and was succeeded by Bruce Crawford (1985–89) and Joseph Volpe (1990–). James Levine, who joined the Met as principal conductor in 1973, has been artistic director since 1986. Today's Metropolitan Opera produces an average of 23 different operas in six languages each season, and in addition to producing works from the traditional operatic repertoire it has been a pioneer in premiering works by such contemporary composers as Philip Glass, John Corigliano, William Hoffman, and John Harbison.

See D. Hamilton, ed., The Metropolitan Opera Encyclopedia (1987).

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9 of the Best Books and Articles on: Metropolitan Opera

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

The Story of the Metropolitan Opera, 1883-1950: A Candid History » Read Now
by Irving Kolodin. 607 pgs.

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...THE STORY OF THE Metropolitan Opera THE STORY OF THE Metropolitan Opera 1883-1950 A CANDID HISTORY BY Irving...NOTE ALL I have to say on the subject of the Metropolitan...
2.

Behind the Gold Curtain: The Story of the Metropolitan Opera: 1883-1950 » Read Now
by Mary Ellis Peltz. 96 pgs.

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...Curtain THE STORY OF THE METROPOLITAN OPERA: 1883-1950 By Mary Ellis Peltz Sponsored by the Metropolitan Opera Guild, Inc. New York Farrar...York Copyright 1950 by The...
3.

Sign-Off for the Old Met: The Metropolitan Opera Broadcasts, 1950-1966 » Read Now
by Paul Jackson. 644 pgs.

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For more than sixty-five years, the weekly Saturday afternoon broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera have brought performances from one of the world's great opera companies to millions of listeners. Covering the period from the beginning of the Rudolf Bing era to the destruction of the old Met in...
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For more than sixty-five years, the weekly Saturday afternoon broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera have brought performances from one of the world's great opera companies to millions of listeners. Covering the period from the beginning of the Rudolf Bing era to the destruction of the old Met in 1966, the new volume surveys two hundred broadcasts featuring luminaries inherited from the Johnson regime (Flagstad, Milanov, Albanese, Steber, Stevens, Bjorling, Di Stefano, Tucker, Warren) and Bing recruits (De Los Angeles, Della Casa, Tebaldi, Nilsson, Price, Sutherland, Crespin, Siepi, Bergonzi, Vickers, Corelli), under the leadership of such great conductors as Fritz Reiner, Dimitri Mitropoulos, and Georg Solti. As in Saturday Afternoons at the Old Met: The Metropolitan Opera Broadcasts, 1931-1950, the author uses unpublished documents and letters from the Metropolitan Opera Archives to tell behind-the-scenes stories of the players involved.
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4.

The Magic of the Opera: A Picture Memoir of the Metropolitan » Read Now
by Tina S. Fredericks, Gjon Mili, Mary Ellis Peltz. 174 pgs.

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5.

Saturday Afternoons at the Old Met: The Metropolitan Opera Broadcasts, 1931-1950 » Read Now
by Paul Jackson. 569 pgs.

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For over sixty years the weekly broadcast from the Metropolitan Opera in New York has been an important part of American cultural life. The broadcasts, whose continuity was ensured when Texaco assumed sponsorship in 1940, have played a significant role in introducing an audience of millions to the...
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For over sixty years the weekly broadcast from the Metropolitan Opera in New York has been an important part of American cultural life. The broadcasts, whose continuity was ensured when Texaco assumed sponsorship in 1940, have played a significant role in introducing an audience of millions to the splendors of opera. Paul Jackson, whose own recollections of the broadcasts start in 1940, presents a rich and detailed history of the broadcasts from their inception in 1931, when the imperious Gatti-Casazza ruled, on through the troubled, yet often triumphant, regime of the more affable Edward Johnson. This was a time when the Wagner operas were performed with unparalleled grandeur, when the Mozart operas were introduced to a nationwide public, and the American singer came to the fore. Above all, it was an age of glorious voices and memorable characterizations - Pinza's Figaro, Melchior's Siegfried, Lehmann's Marschallin, Martinelli's Otello, Milanov's Gioconda, Bjoerling's Manrico, Albanese's Violetta. Beecham,,Walter, Reiner, and Szell contributed to the era of legendary conductors in the forties. Jackson, a musicologist with an uncommon ability to combine narrative history with musical analysis and criticism, brings to life the more than two hundred broadcasts of which recordings, pirated or archival, survive. They constitute a unique record in sound of one of the Metropolitan's great periods. The author explores the glory and decline of Tibbett's and Rethberg's careers, the probity of Ponselle's Carmen, the premiere of Hanson's Merry Mount, the debuts of Flagstad and Sayao. Nor are the blemishes on the Met record slighted in this candid critique. In addition to these primary sources oflive performances, Jackson utilizes unpublished documents and letters from the Metropolitan Opera Archives to tell the story of intricate maneuvers between the Met and the National Broadcasting System, and artistic intrigues
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6.

First Rival of the Metropolitan Opera » Read Now
by John Frederick Cone. 261 pgs.

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...FIRST RIVAL OF THE METROPOLITAN OPERA FIRST RIVAL OF THE METROPOLITAN OPERA John Frederick Cone Columbia University...Cone, John Frederick. First rival of the Metropolitan...
7.

Opera Companies of the World: Selected Profiles » Read Now
by Robert H. Cowden. 342 pgs.

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Here for the first time are in-depth profiles of 139 major opera companies from around the globe, representing 35 countries and including little-known information on opera in the People's Republic of China, Israel, Japan, the Republic of South Africa, and Turkey. Briefly noted in an appendix are an...
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Here for the first time are in-depth profiles of 139 major opera companies from around the globe, representing 35 countries and including little-known information on opera in the People's Republic of China, Israel, Japan, the Republic of South Africa, and Turkey. Briefly noted in an appendix are an additional 24 companies from ten countries. The profiles provide directory and access information, a survey of the company's history, and, wherever possible, a chronological listing of directors and managers, and a concise bibliography for further reference. An annotated research bibliography and a chronology of the foundings of the opera companies and an index complete the volume.
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8.

Opera for the People » Read Now
by Herbert Graf, Geoffrey Cumberlege. 292 pgs.

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...HERBERT GRAF STAGE DIRECTOR, METROPOLITAN OPERA THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA...after guest performances of the Metropolitan Opera on the university campus and...to the...
9.

The Metropolitan Opera, 1883-1935 » Read Now
by Irving Kolodin. 592 pgs.

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