It's history is almost as storied as the productions it houses. Originally opened on October 16th, 1883, the Metropolitan Opera House began its tenure at 1411 Broadway with a somewhat ironic production of Faust. Ironic because the venue otherwise known as "The Yellow Brick Building" was completely ravaged by fire less than ten years later. Although renovated, attempts to move the company dragged on for decades without success.
But in 1966, the company finally uprooted its history of magnificent opera and renowned performances and settled in its current location at the Lincoln Center. Samuel Barber's Antony and Cleopatra ushered in the "New Met" on September 16th. The facility itself is a mind-boggling marvel. Five arches decorate the east façade and murals by the celebrated Russian-Jewish artist Marc Chagall grace the lobby.
And walking into the performance space is like walking into the very breath of fantasy. Thirty-eight hundred seats fill the theater and there's not a bad one in the house. Behind the three thousand square foot proscenium arch lies a stage where modern legends have made the forgotten dead into immortals. And when the largest tab curtain in the world rises - a custom-woven gold damask marvel - the veil between the mundane and the spectacular is rent like the Red Sea, with about as much dramatic effect.
While the audience enjoys concerts from the world's foremost musicians and performers, many of the Met's theatrical convention-defying wonders lie out of sight. Seven performance of four to five productions a week are shown on the mechanized stage. Seven full stage elevators, three slipstages, one hundred and three motorized battens, and two 100 ft. tall fully-enveloping cycloramas make the impossible so very effortlessly possible.
The Met has hosted everything from the common (the American Ballet Company) to the occasional (The MTV Video Music Awards). The world's most internationally renowned performance companies, such as the Kirov Opera, tour through the Met with regularity. For four decades, Rafael Kubelik, James Levine, and Valery Gergiev have served as conductors for show after timeless show.
Indeed, the Met represents the very best not only of classical performance, but American ideals. Its very existence is owed to people who felt that the classics should be available to anyone who wanted to enjoy it (unlike the exclusive and ultimately failed Academy of Music). It's sophistication without the snobbery. And while Broadway may lay claim to raucous musicals and poignant modern dramas, it's the Met where one goes to escape the boundaries of time and place in order to enjoy overtures, arias, and collaborations of singular genius that capture the comedy and tragedy of the human experience.
