Minggu, 18 Agustus 2013

Metropolitan Opera House in NYC

By Jeff Myers


The Metropolitan Opera House first opened its doors in the late 1960's and has been entertaining patrons ever since. The opera is the home of the NYC's best operatic performances, which has been offerring operas since 1883. The Metropolitan Opera House is found in the Lincoln Center for Performing Arts, located Broadway between 63rd and 64th streets.

Chagall Murals

The first of the Metropolitan Opera House's fascinating features are the two murals created by French-Russian artist Marc Chagall for the Metropolitan Opera House's lobby. One is called "The Sources of Music" and one is called "The Triumph of Music". They can be seen from the Lincoln Center's Plaza.

Strong Pedigree

The Metropolitan Opera House was designed by Wallace Kirkman Harrison. Wallace Kirkman Harrison was a Massachusetts born architect who worked on many public 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 Street. An interesting fact is that the dimensions of the primary stage of the older house and the new house are about the same, but the new house has about hextuple the area, due the fact that the designers added additional stages on the sides and in the rear of the house.

A Short Lived

The initial opera at the new Met was a performance of Samuel Barber's Antony and Cleopatra. The opera premiered on the 16th of September in 1966. The performance starred Leontyne Price as Cleopatra and Justino Diaz as Mark Antony. Alas, the opera bombed, and the Met soon dropped it from its line-up.

The Big Curtain

Interestingly the Met has the biggest front curtain on earth. The front curtain is the drape that hangs behind the proscenium arch, and is made of golden damask.

Longest Performer

Charles Antony has logged the most performer hours at the Met. The tenor made his debut on March 6, 1954 at the old Met. Surprisingly, the tenor is still performing at the new Met today, with over 2,000 performances to present.

Famous Debuts

Twenty nine operas have premiered at the Met. They include The Voyage, The Ghosts of Versailles, The Great Gatsby and others.

British Invasion

The Who was the first rock band to perform at the Met Around 1970. Who knew?

Weird but True True

Tenor Richard Versalle died in a performance at the Met. He died on the 5th of January in 1966 during a performance of "The Makropulos Case", after singing "You can only live so long". He was on a ladder, had a cardiac arrest, and plunged to the stage in a truly dramatic performance.




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