America's history through the lens of 20th century broadcast media
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Metropolitan Opera Broadcasts - an unparalleled history
The "Old" Met
New York's Metropolitan Opera 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"). The Met was founded, and the building was constructed, as much for the opportunity for the city's nouveau riche to display social prominence as for music appreciation and the building's auditorium prominently featured boxes in lower tier of the balcony which wrapped the sides and rear of the hall. Known as the Diamond Horseshow, it was famous for the opportunity it provided for dowager women to display their elegant jewelry and dresses. Husbands frequently departed the boxes to visit the Gentlemen Smoking Lounge.
New York's Metropolitan Opera 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"). The Met was founded, and the building was constructed, as much for the opportunity for the city's nouveau riche to display social prominence as for music appreciation and the building's auditorium prominently featured boxes in lower tier of the balcony which wrapped the sides and rear of the hall. Known as the Diamond Horseshow, it was famous for the opportunity it provided for dowager women to display their elegant jewelry and dresses. Husbands frequently departed the boxes to visit the Gentlemen Smoking Lounge.
The Old Met building
Old Met auditorium showing the Diamond Horsehoe
Photo of the stage during a production of Andrea Chenier (featuring Eileen Farrell) taken 2 months before the company let the Old Met.
The Met was an early adopter of emerging sound technology. Beginning in 1902,
the Met's librarian, Lionel Mapleson, used an Edison cylinder phonograph to
record short portions of performances from the stage wings or the fly loft and
these recordings (often very distant and of difficult quality) are the earliest
captured sound of early Met productions.
On January 13, 1910 the Met engaged in a famous experiment when radio
inventor Lee de Forest transmitted the world’s first public broadcast in New
York City of portions of Met opera performances of Cavalleria Rusticana and
Pagliacci starring Enrico Caruso, Emmy Destinn and other Metropolitan Opera
stars. Members of the public and the press used earphones to listen to the
broadcast in several locations throughout the city.
The radio industry having been more firmly established, the Met turned to radio
in 1931 with a full-length NBC broadcast of Hansel and Gretel on Christmas day
and the second full-length broadcast of Das Rheingold on February 26, 1932. The
balance of 1932 saw partial NBC broadcasts of Met Saturday matinee
performances and for the 1933-34 season the Saturday NBC broadcasts became
complete performances. Beginning in 1940, the broadcasts were also carried on
the Canadian radio network (coverage which has endured).
For the most part the NBC broadcasts, which continued from 1934 were heard
on the NBC-Blue network. The Met had been especially hard hit financially
during the Depression and the company saw the radio broadcasts as an
opportunity to raise funds from listeners as a way for the company to survive.
Its 1933 "Save the Met" campaign during the broadcasts is largely credited for
the Met's surviving the Depression.
NBC having been forced by the FCC to divest itself of its Blue Network (which
became ABC), the broadcasts continued on ABC Radio from 1945 until 1958 when
they moved to CBS Radio. As network radio was waning along with network
interest in carrying the Met, Texaco established its own private order network,
the Texaco Metropolitan Opera Radio Network which continued the annual
season broadcasts.
Milton Cross
Beginning with the Met's first full-length 1931
broadcast of Hansel and Gretel, the broadcasts
were hosted by Milton Cross who had become an
prominent classical music radio announced as
early as 1922. Cross' record of Met broadcasts
was remarkable and unparalleled having hosted
every broadcast (with three notable exceptions
consisting of April 3 and May 15, 1937 and
February 10 and 17, 1973 at the time of his wife's
death) until his own death in 1974.
In the Old Met, he broadcast from a seat in Box
44 (shown) and his distinctive voice conveyed
the excitement of live performances "from the
stage of the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City" for generations of
radio listeners. His opening broadcast line "Welcome opera lovers in the United
States and Canada" became a warm, beckoning call to North American opera
lovers for many decades.
The New Met at Lincoln Center
In 1966 the Met moved from its 39th and
Broadway home to the new Lincoln Center
and the New Met's Opening Night
performance was a special broadcast, hosted
by Cross, who presided from a specially
constructed radio booth in the new house.
On Cross's death he was succeeded by Peter
Allen, a WQXR announcer who had long been
Cross's standby announcer and became the
Met's "voice" until 2004. On his retirement he
was succeeded by Margaret Juntwait who
announced the broadcasts until her death
from cancer in 2015. In subsequent years the
broadcasts have been hosted by a variety of
people principally Mary Jo Heath who had
been serving as a producer of features used in
the broadcasts when Juntwait was hosting.
Texaco Sponsorship Beginning in 1940 and
continuing through 2004 the Metropolitan
Opera broadcasts were sponsored by Texaco
in an unparalleled record of commercial
sponsorship history. See Texcao and the
Met.
(Above) The New Met exterior, the New Met auditorium with the crystal chandeliers gifted to the Met by the City of Vienna, Austria, Peter Allen in the broadcast booth and Margaret Juntwait broadcasting.
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