Our story

On the eve of its 125th anniversary season, the Metropolitan Opera is the most widely heard and known opera company in the world. The Met is a vibrant home for the most creative and talented artists, including singers, conductors, composers, orchestra musicians, stage directors, designers, visual artists, choreographers, and dancers from around the world. Known as the venue for the world’s greatest voices, the Met has been under the musical direction of James Levine since 1976.  Levine is credited with having created one of opera’s finest orchestras and choruses.

In the summer of 2006, Peter Gelb became the Met’s 16th general manager. Under the leadership of Gelb and Levine, the Met is elevating the company’s theatrical standards by significantly increasing the number of new productions, staged by the most imaginative directors working in theater and opera. The company is also securing increased commitments from the world’s greatest singers. The Met has launched a series of initiatives to broaden its audience internationally; efforts have ranged from transmitting operas live in high definition to movie theaters around the world to hosting free Open Houses for the general public.  To revitalize the company’s repertory, the Met has pledged to present modern masterpieces alongside the classic repertory.

The Metropolitan Opera was founded in 1883. The first Metropolitan Opera House was built on Broadway and 39th Street by a group of wealthy businessmen who wanted their own opera house. In the company’s early years, the management changed course several times, first performing everything in Italian (even Carmen and Lohengrin), then everything in German (even Aida and Faust), before finally settling into a policy of performing most works in their original language, with some notable exceptions.

The Metropolitan Opera has always engaged many of the world’s most important artists. Christine Nilsson and Marcella Sembrich shared leading roles during the opening season. In the German seasons that followed, Lilli Lehmann dominated the Wagnerian repertory and anything else she chose to sing. In the 1890s, Nellie Melba and Emma Calvé shared the spotlight with the De Reszkes (Jean and Edouard), and two American sopranos, Emma Eames and Lillian Nordica. Enrico Caruso arrived in 1903, and by the time of his death had performed more times with the Met than with all the world’s other opera companies combined. American singers acquired even greater prominence with Geraldine Farrar and Rosa Ponselle becoming important members of the company. In the 1920s, Lawrence Tibbett became the first in a distinguished line of American baritones for whom the Met was home. Today, the Met continues to present the best available talent from around the world, and also discovers and trains artists through its National Council Auditions and Lindemann Young Artist Development Program.

Almost from the beginning, it was clear that the opera house on 39th Street did not have adequate stage facilities. However, it was not until the Metropolitan Opera joined with other New York institutions in forming Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts that a new home became possible. The new Metropolitan Opera House, which opened at Lincoln Center in September of 1966, was equipped with the finest technical facilities.

Many great conductors have helped shape the Metropolitan, from Wagner’s disciple Anton Seidl in the 1880s and 1890s to Arturo Toscanini who made his debut in 1908. There were two seasons with both Toscanini and Gustav Mahler on the conducting roster. Later, Artur Bodanzky, Bruno Walter, George Szell, Fritz Reiner, and Dimitri Mitropoulos contributed powerful musical direction. James Levine made his debut in 1971 and has been Music Director since 1976 (holding also the title of Artistic Director between 1986 and 2004).

The Metropolitan Opera has given the American premieres of some of the most important works in the repertory. Among Wagner’s masterpieces, Die Meistersinger, Das Rheingold, Siegfried, Götterdämmerung, Tristan und Isolde, and Parsifal were first performed in this country by the Met. Other American premieres have included Boris Godunov, Der Rosenkavalier, Turandot, Simon Boccanegra, and Arabella. The Met’s thirty-two world premieres include Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West and Il Trittico, and five recent works, John Corigliano and William Hoffman’s The Ghosts of Versailles in 1991, Philip Glass’s The Voyage in 1992, John Harbison’s The Great Gatsby in 1999, Tobias Picker’s An American Tragedy in 2005, and Tan Dun’s The First Emperor in 2006. An additional thirty-seven operas have had their Met premieres since 1976.

Hansel und Gretel was the first complete opera broadcast from the Metropolitan Opera on Christmas Day 1931. Regular Saturday afternoon live radio broadcasts from December to April quickly made the Metropolitan Opera a permanent presence in communities throughout the United States and Canada.

In 1977, the Metropolitan began a regular series of televised productions with a performance of La Bohème viewed by more than four million people on public television. “The Metropolitan Opera Presents” has made seventy-eight complete Met performances available to a huge audience around the world. Many of these performances have been issued on videotape, laserdisc, and DVD.

In 1995, the Metropolitan introduced “Met Titles,” a unique system of simultaneous translation. “Met Titles” appear on individual computerized screens mounted in specially built railings at the back of each row of seats, for those members of the audience who wish to utilize them, but with minimum distraction for those who do not. “Met Titles” are provided for all Metropolitan Opera performances, and have recently expanded to include Spanish and German for select operas.

Each season the Metropolitan stages more than two hundred opera performances in New York. More than 800,000 people attend the performances in the opera house during the season, and millions more experience the Met through advanced new media distribution initiatives and state-of-the-art technology.

The Met continues its hugely successful radio broadcast series—now in its 77th year—the longest-running classical music series in American broadcast history, which is now heard in 42 countries around the world via the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network.

In the 2006-07 season, the company launched “Metropolitan Opera: Live in HD,” a series of performance transmissions shown live in high definition (HD) in movie theaters around the world. The series expanded from six to eight opera transmissions in 2007-08, reaching over 600 participating venues in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Performances are also shown on public television with some later released on DVD. In partnership with the New York City Department of Education and the Metropolitan Opera Guild, the Met has developed a program for thousands of New York City students to attend Live in HD transmissions for free in their schools.

Other media offerings include Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS Satellite Radio (Channel 85), a subscription-based audio service broadcasting both live and rare historical performances. The Met also provides audio recordings on-demand through an online partnership with Rhapsody, and free live audio streaming of performances on its website once every week during the opera season with support from RealNetworks®.

The company recently announced a groundbreaking commissioning program in partnership with New York’s Lincoln Center Theater, which will provide renowned composers and playwrights with the resources to create and develop new works at the Met and at Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theater.

Other initiatives include the Arnold and Marie Schwartz Gallery Met, which displays the work of top contemporary visual artists; annual holiday entertainment offerings; reduced ticket prices (the lowest-priced are now $15); expanded editorial offerings in Met publications, on the web, and through broadcasts; and new public programs that provide greater access to the Met, including a series of Open House dress rehearsals, which are free to the public.

           Feb/2008