New York’s current Metropolitan Opera House initially opened in the late 1960′s and has been captivating patrons consistently ever since. The opera is the home of the NYC’s most high profile opera, which has been offerring operas since 1883. The Met is located in the Lincoln Center for Performing Arts, located Broadway between 63rd and 64th St.
Chagall Murals
The first of the opera house’s engaging features are the two murals created by Marc Chagall that are viewable in the Met’s lobby.. One mural is called “The Sources of Music” and one is called “The Triumph of Music”. Both of the murals can be seen from the Lincoln Center’s Plaza.
Strong Pedigree
The architecture of the Met was designed by Wallace Kirkman Harrison. Wallace Kirkman Harrison was a Massachusetts born architect-designer who has created many public art projects around New York, including Rockafeller Center.
Extra Stages
As the new opera house, the Met replaced an older metropolitan opera house on Broadway and 39th. An interesting fact is that the dimensions of the key stage of the older house and the new house are about the same, but the new opera house has about hextuple the area, as the designers added new stages on the sides and in the back of the venue.
Short Lived Opening Act
The initial performance at the new Met was a performance of Antony and Cleopatra by Samuel Barber. The opera premiered on the 16th of September in 1966. It starred Leontyne Price as Cleopatra and Justino Diaz as Mark Antony. Alas, the opera bombed, and the Met almost immediately dropped it from its performance list.
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The Big Curtain
Trivial but intersting, the Met has the largest front curtain of any performance venue in existence. The front curtain is the drape that hangs behind the proscenium arch, and is made out of golden damask.
Longest Performer
Charles Antony has logged the most performer hours at the Met. Antony is a tenor that made his debut on March 6, 1954 at the old Met. Surprisingly, he’s still performing at the new Met today, with over 2,000 performances to present.
Famous Debuts
29 operas have premiered at the Met. The premieres include The Great Gatsby, The Voyage, The Ghosts of Versailles and others.
British Invasion
The Who was the very first band to perform at the Met Around 1970. Who knew?
Odd but True True
Tenor Richard Versalle died during a performance at the Met. The tenor died on January 5th in 1996 in a performance of “The Makropulos Case”, after singing “You can only live so long”. The tenor was on a ladder, had a cardiac arrest, and plunged to the stage in a truly dramatic performance.
Jeff Myers has been fascinated by of the great events held at the Metropolitan Opera House for many years. He has written many articles about several topics, please look for his writing here.