The Metropolitan Opera Company

The Metropolitan Opera Company (popularly known as the Met) is the largest opera and classical music organization in the world, presenting approximately 240 performances every year. Located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York, the Metropolitan Opera House is one of the most respected and technologically advanced opera houses in the world.

The Metropolitan Opera Company began life in April 1880, when the Metropolitan Opera Association of New York City was formed.

When the Met was founded, the dominating force in New York classical music was the Academy of Music. The elite of New York society attended the academy. The so-called old money that ran the academy's board of directors did not favor membership for newly wealthy families.

To combat this, several of New York's "new money" families banded together to sponsor the Metropolitan Opera Company. Many of the names on the Met's initial list of subscribers are now well-known and include the Vanderbilts, the Astors, the Morgans and the Roosevelts.

In the face of the academy, the Met was the underdog, but the upstart company, which opened in 1883 with a production of "Faust," outlasted the more established company.

The Metropolitan Opera Company has seen the best opera singers in the world perform, including the legendary Enrico Caruso. The year 1955 saw the debut of Marian Anderson, the first African American to sing at the Metropolitan Opera House.

Many of the famous singers who perform or have performed at the Met are recognizable names even outside of the opera world. Such singers include:

The first Metropolitan Opera House was located in New York at 1411 Broadway. Nicknamed the Yellow Brick Brewery, the Met took up the whole block.

In 1892, a fire gutted the Yellow Brick Brewery, forcing the canceling of the 1892 to 1893 season for major repair and restoration.

In 1966, the Metropolitan Opera House was relocated to the Lincoln Center of the Performing Arts. The new opera house, designed by Wallace K. Harrison, seats 3,800 people.

The stage technology used by the Metropolitan Opera Company is world-class. The stage machinery includes seven full-stage elevators, each one 60 feet wide with double decks.

The Metropolitan Opera House also includes three slip stages (enormous wagons slightly smaller than the stage and capable of holding an entire set). One of the slip stages contains a 60-foot turntable.

One of the Metropolitan Opera Company's recent additions to the opera house is the electronic libretto system. More commonly known as Met Titles, the system cost $2 million.

The electronic libretto system includes a screen in front of each seat that displays a translation of the opera lyrics. Met Titles screens can be turned on and off, have filters so the glow of the screen does not annoy other patrons and has the potential to translate in several different languages.

The Metropolitan Opera Company season runs from October to May. Over 800,000 opera-goers take in between 200 and 250 performances every season.

Thanks to the sophisticated elevators, slip stages and other staging, the house runs four to five productions at a time, which run in rotation throughout the week.

During the off-season, the Metropolitan Opera House is hardly quiet. The center hosts the spring season of the American Ballet Theatre every year. During the rest of the off-season, the Met hosts touring ballet and opera companies, including La Scala, Bolshoi and Kirov.

Tickets for a performance at the Metropolitan Opera House vary depending on seating location. Here's a representative sample of ticket prices for a performance, listed from least expensive to most expensive:

If you can't make it to the Metropolitan Opera House, don't despair. You can still take in a show. Metropolitan Opera Company performances have been televised since 1977.

Met performances have been aired on the radio since 1931. In September 2006, the opera company broke into satellite radio with the Metropolitan Opera Radio, a 24-hour opera channel that airs live performances from the Metropolitan Opera House four evenings a week during the opera season.

Resources

Metropolitan Opera. (n.d.). Our Story. Retrieved December 15, 2007, from the Metropolitan Opera Web site: www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/about/.

Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. (2007). Metropolitan Opera Company. Retrieved December 15, 2007, from the Infoplease Web site: www.infoplease.com/ce6/ent/A0832935.html.