"The Met" | |
 Metropolitan Opera House seen from Lincoln Center Plaza | |
 Interactive map of Metropolitan Opera House | |
| Address | 30 Lincoln Center Plaza |
|---|---|
| Location | New York City |
| Coordinates | 40°46′22″N73°59′3″W / 40.77278°N 73.98417°W /40.77278; -73.98417 |
| Public transit | Subway: at66th Street–Lincoln CenterBus:M5,M7,M11,M20,M66,M104 |
| Owner | Metropolitan Opera Association |
| Type | Opera house |
| Event | Modernist |
| Capacity | 3,850 |
| Construction | |
| Built | 1963–1966 |
| Opened | September 16, 1966 (1966-09-16) |
| Architect | Wallace Harrison, Harrison &Abramovitz Architects |
| Website | |
| metopera.org | |
TheMetropolitan Opera House (also known asThe Met) is anopera house located onBroadway atLincoln Square on theUpper West Side ofManhattan inNew York City. Part ofLincoln Center, the theater was designed byWallace K. Harrison. It opened in 1966, replacing the original1883 Metropolitan Opera House at Broadway and 39th Street. With a total capacity of 3,975 (175 being standing room spaces), the house is the largest repertory opera house in the world.[1][2] Home to theMetropolitan Opera Company, the facility also hosts theAmerican Ballet Theatre in the summer months.
Planning for a new home for the Metropolitan Opera began as early as the mid-1920s, when the backstage facilities of theformer house were becoming vastly inadequate for growing repertory and advancing stagecraft. As part of thedevelopment of the present-day Rockefeller Center site, there was to be a development with a new 4,000-seat opera house at its center. Financial problems and the followingstock market crash of 1929 postponed the relocation of the Metropolitan Opera, and the complex became more commercially based.
With the development moving forward,John D. Rockefeller Jr. replaced the opera house development with theRockefeller Center complex; this included a 70-story skyscraper, theRCA Building, which opened in 1933. Young Rockefeller Center architectWallace Harrison would be approached some 20 years later by officers of theNew York Philharmonic Society and the Met to develop a new home for both institutions.
As chief architect again for the development ofLincoln Center, Harrison was chosen to design the new opera house, to be built as the centerpiece of the new performing arts complex- a twenty-five acre, eighteen block site on theUpper West Side, chosen byRobert Moses as a majorurban renewal andslum clearance project. After a long process of redesigns, revisions and opposing interests (provided by the Met wanting a more traditional design for its home, and the conflicting wishes of the architects of the other Lincoln Center venues), construction of Harrison's forty-third design of the Metropolitan Opera House began in the winter of 1963, the last of the three major Lincoln Center venues to be completed. Construction delays due to the finishing of the neighboringNew York State Theatre (in time with the opening of the1964 World's Fair), resulted in the excavation site being nicknamed "Lake Bing" after then-Met General ManagerRudolf Bing.[3]
Although the house would not officially open for several more months, the first public performance at the new Metropolitan Opera House was a performance ofGiacomo Puccini'sLa fanciulla del West on April 11, 1966, withBeverly Bower as Minnie, Gaetano Bardini as Dick Johnson, and Cesare Bardelli as Jack Rance. The production was attended by 3,000 high school students, and began with the playing of the National Anthem and a series of sound tests that included a loud chord from the orchestra and a blast from a shotgun.[4] The new building officially opened on September 16, 1966, with the world premiere ofSamuel Barber'sAntony and Cleopatra, directed and designed byFranco Zeffirelli and choreographed byAlvin Ailey starringLeontyne Price asCleopatra withThomas Schippers conducting.
The Met is one of the most technologically advanced stages in the world. Its vast array of hydraulic elevators, motorized stages and rigging systems have made possible the staging requirements ofgrand opera in repertory and have made possible complex productions such asFranco Zeffirelli's 1981 production ofLa bohème, as well as productions of mammoth operas, includingProkofiev'sWar and Peace, Verdi'sAida andWagner's four-part, 16-hourDer Ring des Nibelungen. The Met stage has also been home to numerous world premieres of operas, includingJohn Corigliano'sThe Ghosts of Versailles, Philip Glass'sThe Voyage and the US premiere of Nico Muhly'sTwo Boys in 2013.
When the Metropolitan Opera is on hiatus, the Opera House is home to the annual Spring season ofAmerican Ballet Theatre (ABT). It regularly hosts touring opera and ballet companies including theKirov,Bolshoi, and theLa Scala companies. In addition, the Met has presented recitals byVladimir Horowitz,Renée Fleming,Kathleen Battle, and others.Philip Glass'sEinstein on the Beach was staged independently at the Met in 1976. Concerts byBarbra Streisand,The Who,Paul McCartney and others have been successful as well.[citation needed]
Several notable non-operatic performances occurred in 1986. On July 8, a gala fund raiser performance to benefit ABT andParis Opera Ballet saw the first joint performance in over ten years of ABT artistic directorMikhail Baryshnikov and Paris Opera Ballet DirectorRudolf Nureyev.[5] On August 9 and 10, comedianRobin Williams recorded performances that were shown onHBO and released on compact disc under the titleRobin Williams Live at the Met.[6] On October 19,Herbert von Karajan and theBerlin Philharmonic were scheduled during their North American tour for a matinee concert at the Opera House, but Karajan had fallen ill and was replaced byJames Levine.[7]
The opera house has been featured in a number of movies and television programs, including the climax of Norman Jewison's 1987 filmMoonstruck. In addition to regular Metropolitan Opera radio and television broadcasts, several other television programs have been produced at the Metropolitan Opera House includingDanny Kaye's Look-In at the Metropolitan Opera (CBS, 1975) andSills andBurnett at the Met (CBS, 1976). In 1999 and 2001, the Opera House was the venue for theMTV Video Music Awards.[8][9]
As of May 2017[update], its 50th anniversary, the Metropolitan Opera House had hosted over 11,000 performances and 164 separate operas (67 of them added after the Met moved to the current building), with 251 productions having been created there.James Levine had conducted 2,583 of the Opera House's 11,000 performances;Charles Anthony had sung there 2,296 times; andThe Three Tenors had performed there a combined 1,298 times. Additionally, the Met had broadcast 1,931 performances on live radio, 198 on television, and 109 for movie theaters.[10]
Situated at the western end of Lincoln Center Plaza, the Metropolitan Opera House facesColumbus Avenue andBroadway and forms an axis withPhilip Johnson'sDavid Koch Theater (formerly the New York State Theater) andDavid Geffen Hall (formerly Avery Fisher Hall), designed byMax Abramovitz, with the plaza's fountain at the center. Although west–east roads do not run through Lincoln Center itself, the Metropolitan Opera House is parallel to the block from West 63rd Street to West 64th Street. The rear of the House meetsAmsterdam Avenue, and extends to the plaza entrance.
The building is clad in whitetravertine and the east facade is graced with its distinctive series of five concrete arches and large glass and bronze facade, towering 96 feet above the plaza. On the north, south and west sides of the building, hundreds of vertical fins of travertine running the full height of the structure give the impression that the facade is an uninterrupted mass of travertine when viewed from certain angles. The building totals 14 stories, 5 of which are underground.
On display in the lobby, and visible to the outside plaza, are two murals created for the space byMarc Chagall,The Sources of Music andThe Triumph of Music. The murals are approximately 30 ft (9.1 m) by 36 ft (11 m). The south wall holds the work entitledThe Triumph of Music while the north wall containsThe Sources of Music.[11] In 2009, the Met's board of directors decided to use the paintings as collateral for a long-term loan which previously relied on cash for backing. Some sources estimate the value of the paintings at$20 million.[12]
The multi-story lobby is dominated by a concrete andterrazzocantilevered stairway that connects the main level with the lower level lounges and upper floors.[13] The centerpiece of the lobby is an array of eleven "crystal chandeliers resembling constellations with sparkly moons and satellites spraying out in all directions";[14] the auditorium contains 21 matching chandeliers, the largest of which measures 18 ft (5.5 m) in diameter. The chandeliers were donated by the government ofAustria[15] as repayment for American help during theMarshall Plan following World War II,[13][failed verification] and were designed by Dr. Hans Harald Rath ofJ. & L. Lobmeyr of Vienna. Twelve of the chandeliers in the auditorium are on motorized winches, and raised to the ceiling prior to performances so as not to obstruct sight lines of the audience on the upper levels.[16]
In 2008 the lobby chandeliers were dismantled and sent to the J & L Lobmeyr workshop in Vienna to be refurbished prior to the Met's 125th anniversary season. Workers re-wired the pieces and replaced any of the 49,000 crystals that were broken or missing.[14] The lobby also contains sculptures byAristide Maillol andWilhelm Lehmbruck as well as portraits of notable performers and members of the Met company. 3,000 square feet of velour covers the walls in the front of house spaces, with gold leaf, bronze, Italian marble and concrete being the architectural surfaces in these spaces. A restaurant occupies space on the Grand Tier level, and spaces for patrons, guild members, and theMetropolitan Opera Club exist as well throughout the lobbies.[17]
A restaurant known as "Top of the Met", which occupied a balcony overlooking the plaza and lobbies below was a success upon opening, but closed after low attendance in the mid-1970s. The space was designed by Harrison himself and featured murals by French impressionistRaoul Dufy. Other public spaces in the Opera House were decorated by such interior designers of the time asAngelo Donghia,William Baldwin, and L. Garth Huxtable, husband of then-New York Times architecture criticAda Louise Huxtable, who upon the opening of the building would famously write, "There is a strong temptation to close the eyes."[17]
The auditorium is fan-shaped and decorated in gold and burgundy with seating for 3,794 and 245 standing positions on six levels. Over 4,000 squares of gold leaf cover the domed petal-shaped ceiling from which the 21 crystal chandeliers hang. The walls of the auditorium are paneled inkevazingo bubinga, a rosewood noted for its acoustic quality. The auditorium is known to be acoustically significant—small conversation and quiet moments in music can be heard well at the top of the Family Circle some 146 feet (45 m) away from the stage.[18] As a result, the Opera House is the only Lincoln Center auditorium that has not been rebuilt because of acoustic problems. The square goldproscenium is 54 ft (16 m) wide and 54 ft (16 m) high. The main curtain of custom-woven golddamask, a gift of theMetropolitan Opera Club, is the largesttab curtain in the world. Above the proscenium is an untitled bronze sculpture byMary Callery.[18] The orchestra pit is very large and open to the auditorium, with the capacity for up to 110 musicians.
The stage complex is one of the largest and most complex of its kind in the world, extending 80 ft (24 m) deep from the curtain line to the rear wall. The overall dimensions of the stage with wing space are 90 ft (27 m) deep and 103 ft (31 m) wide.[18] The stage contains 7 hydraulic elevators that are 60 ft (18 m) wide, with double decks; three slipstages (large spaces on either side of and behind the main stage, each capable of holding a complete stage setting), the upstage one containing a 60 ft (18 m) diameter turntable; 103 motorizedbattens (linesets) for overhead lifting; and two 100 ft (30 m)-tall fully envelopingcycloramas.
The large and highly mechanized stage and support space smoothly facilitates the rotating presentation of up to four different opera productions each week. The auditorium occupies a fourth of the building's interior area; massive storage spaces below the stage allow for production storage within the opera house, and large workshops for scenery construction, costumes, wigs and electric equipment, as well as kitchens, offices, an employee canteen and dressing room spaces for the principals, chorus, supernumeraries, ballet and children's chorus surround the stage complex on multiple floors. Two large rehearsal halls (situated three floors below the stage) have nearly the dimensions of the Main Stage, allowing for blocking rehearsals and space for full orchestra set ups.
Citations
Works cited
Media related toMetropolitan Opera House at Wikimedia Commons
