In its early decades the Met did not produce the opera performances itself but hired prominent manager/ impresarios to stage a season of opera at the new Metropolitan Opera House. JSTOR ( September 2019) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message).Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.įind sources: "Metropolitan Opera" – news Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. This article needs additional citations for verification. The Academy of Music's opera season folded just three years after the Met opened. The new Metropolitan Opera House opened on October 22, 1883, and was an immediate success, both socially and artistically. The first Met subscribers included members of the Morgan, Roosevelt, and Vanderbilt families, all of whom had been excluded from the Academy. The new theater, built at 39th and Broadway, would include three tiers of private boxes in which the scions of New York's powerful new industrial families could display their wealth and establish their social prominence. They elected officers and established subscriptions for ownership in the new company. A group of 22 men assembled at Delmonico's restaurant on April 28, 1880. Frustrated with being excluded, the Metropolitan Opera's founding subscribers determined to build a new opera house that would outshine the old Academy in every way. By 1880, these " old money" families were loath to admit New York's newly wealthy industrialists into their long-established social circle. The subscribers to the Academy's limited number of private boxes represented the highest stratum in New York society. The Metropolitan Opera Company was founded in 1883 as an alternative to New York's old established Academy of Music opera house. ( October 2014) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. This section needs additional citations for verification. While many singers appear periodically as guests with the company, others maintain a close long-standing association with the Met, appearing many times each season until they retire. The Met's roster of singers includes both international and American artists, some of whose careers have been developed through the Met's young artists programs. The company also employs numerous free-lance dancers, actors, musicians and other performers throughout the season. The Met's performing company consists of a large symphony orchestra, a chorus, children's choir, and many supporting and leading solo singers. These operas are presented in staged productions that range in style from those with elaborate traditional decors to others that feature modern conceptual designs. The operas in the Met's repertoire consist of a wide range of works, from 18th-century Baroque and 19th-century Bel canto to the Minimalism of the late 20th and 21st century. The 2015–16 season comprised 227 performances of 25 operas. The rest of the year's operas are given in revivals of productions from previous seasons. Sometimes these are borrowed from or shared with other opera companies. Several operas are presented in new productions each season. Performances are given in the evening Monday through Saturday with a matinée on Saturday. The operas are presented in a rotating repertory schedule, with up to seven performances of four different works staged each week. Until 2019, it presented about 27 different operas each year from late September through May. The Metropolitan Opera is the largest classical music organization in North America. It moved to the new Lincoln Center location in 1966. The Met was founded in 1883 as an alternative to the previously established Academy of Music opera house, and debuted the same year in a new building on 39th and Broadway (now known as the "Old Met"). As of 2018, the company's current music director is Yannick Nézet-Séguin. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager. The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met ) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.