Metropolitan Opera Association

▪ American opera company

      New York City, leading U.S. opera company, distinguished for the outstanding singers it has attracted since its opening performance (Gounod's Faust) on Oct. 22, 1883. After its first season under Henry E. Abbey had ended in a $600,000 deficit, its management passed to the conductor Leopold Damrosch and later to his son, conductor and composer Walter Damrosch. In 1892, under Abbey, Walter Schoeffel, and Maurice Grau, the programming was a balance of German, French, and Italian. Grau, as manager during the Metropolitan's “Golden Age” (1898–1903), drew many excellent artists from all over the world.

      Heinrich Conried, manager from 1903 to 1908, arranged performances of Richard Wagner's Parsifal (first performance outside Bayreuth, Ger.) and Richard Strauss's Salome, which so shocked its audience that it was withdrawn. During Giulio Gatti-Casazza's 25 years as general manager, weekly radio broadcasts were inaugurated.

      Under Edward Johnson (general manager 1934–50), U.S. composers and artists were encouraged. His successor, Rudolf Bing (Bing, Sir Rudolph), made innovations in staging and brought the first black singers to the Metropolitan. He also arranged the Metropolitan's first televised performance and organized its touring company. In 1966 the Metropolitan moved to the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York City. In 1972, Bing resigned and was succeeded by Göeran Gentele, former head of the Stockholm opera; Gentele was killed in an automobile accident later that year and was succeeded by Schuyler G. Chapin in 1973 and Anthony Bliss in 1975.

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