A brief history of New York's Metropolitan Opera

At the end of the 19th century, the Academy of Music was New York's established opera house. Its seating space in private boxes was however too limited to accommodate the city's new millionaires. The new Metropolitan Opera House, which opened on October 22, 1883, featured three tiers of private boxes, allowing powerful industrialists such as William H. Vanderbilt to display their wealth.

Wealthy industrialists including John D. Rockefeller (pictured), as well as the Vanderbilt, Roosevelt and Morgan families financed the new opera house after being excluded from the Academy of Music. In 1883 the Metropolitan Opera officially opened with Charles Gounod's opera "Faust."

The singer Enrico Caruso (right), born in Naples, Italy, came to the Metropolitan Opera in 1903 — and sang there until his death. The tenor's 17 years at the Met are considered the opera house's golden age. Soprano Geraldine Farrar reportedly forgot her cue when she stood on stage with Caruso for the first time, breaking into tears as she heard his beautiful singing.

Austrian composer and conductor Gustav Mahler began his service at the Metropolitan Opera in 1908, under the direction of Giulio Gatti-Casazza, former head of La Scala in Milan. But Gatti-Casazza also brought in competition: the Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini. After many quarrels, Mahler finally left the baton to his Italian rival in 1910.

Toscanini's tantrums were legendary. He yelled at his orchestra and trampled batons. The soprano star at the time was Geraldine Farrar, who clashed with the conductor while working on "Madame Butterfly." She apparently let him know that she was the actual star of the production. Toscanini's answer? "Stars only exist in heaven!" The two later became lovers.

In 1929, a leading opera role for a Black protagonist was still performed by a white man who blackened his face. When Rudolf Bing (right) became the Metropolitan Opera's general manager in 1950, he became the first to include African American performers on the roster. Marian Anderson (left) became the first Black singer in a leading role at the Met in 1955.

Rudolf Bing offered Maria Callas the title role in "Macbeth" in 1958/59, the Met's most expensive production at the time. But he also wanted her to intersperse her performances as Lady Macbeth with other opera roles. When Callas refused despite their contractual agreement, Bing fired her. It was a scandal that made headlines worldwide.

Moving to a new house, the Lincoln Center, in 1966, led to several changes for the Metropolitan Opera. The new hall could seat 3,900 visitors and was spectacularly equipped, with the curtains weighing several hundred kilos, their cords made of pure silk. Two years later, new stars were discovered: Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti took to the stage in 1968 and went on to become world famous.

In May 2002, Pavarotti canceled at short notice an appearance at the sold out Met due to a cold, much to the annoyance of his fans in New York. But at his farewell performance in 2004, they demonstrated with thunderous applause that they had completely forgiven him. The Italian opera star died in 2007.

Placido Domingo not only sang at the Met several times, the tenor conducted operas there too. But in 2019, around 20 women made allegations against him of sexual harassment, some of which dated back 30 years. Domingo admitted his wrongdoing in February 2020.

Domingo wasn't the only who was accused of sexual misconduct in the aftermath of the #MeToo movement. Conductor James Levine, who worked at the Met from 1971 to 2016, was accused of sexually molesting various underaged males. The Met Opera's own investigations confirmed the allegations, and Levine was dismissed in 2018. The disgraced conductor died in 2021.

The Met employs more than 3,000 people and is the largest performing arts organization in the United States. But in the institution's 138-year history, it has not shown a single opera by a Black composer. The reopening after 18 months of closure due to the COVID pandemic with "Fire Shut Up In My Bones" by Terence Blanchard (left) is finally changing that.

The Met's doors are not reopening to everyone, however. Only those who have been vaccinated against COVID are allowed inside. This applies to the audience and artists alike. This is part of current discussions surrounding vaccine rules in the US. During its forced break, the Met also upgraded its ventilation system, enabling the opera house to fill to capacity.