All About the Met Trivia Quiz

Answer: They weren't upper-crust enough to get boxes at the Academy

It's hard to believe, but as late as 1880 the Astors still considered the Vanderbilts parvenus. Hugely-but-newly-rich families were unable to secure boxes at the Academy of Music, actually a rather big house, with 4000 (not 400) seats and good acoustics.

However, seats on the floor were cramped and uncomfortable and there were few boxes; all of which were spoken for by members of the 'upper tens', the older, more aristocratic families of New York.

Answer: Italian

In the end, Italian won, German lost and French wasn't even in the running.

Language was first big issue the Met had to deal with. In Europe, opera was a popular form of entertainment and usually sung in the language of the country in which it was being performed, the principals often singing in the language they had first learned the opera in. To complicate matters, over the 19th century there had grown a vehement, often bitter argument over what was 'better' - the Italian or German repertoire. At the Met, in a city with very large German and Italian-speaking populations, the argument raged over an Italian vs. German repertoire and librettos in Italian or German. Eventually the management went with Italian and at the end of the first season they lost their shirts, so for the next 9 years the Met was a German house. It was only then that they reached a compromise - it was decided that all operas would be performed in their original language, be it Italian, German, French, or whatever. Yet up until well into the 20th century the company maintained separate German and Italian choruses.

Answer: Philadelphia

In 1910 The Metropolitan Opera of New York purchased the Oscar Hammerstein I's new Philadelphia opera house and continued to present all of, or later part of, its season there right up until 1961.

Further, from 1898 to 1986, the annual 'Spring Tour' took opera to different parts of the country that would have remained otherwise opera-less. And there were no second stringers among the artists on the tour. Alumni include Lily Pons, Rosa Ponselle, Barbara Daniels, Lucrezia Bori, Rise Stevens, Placido Domingo and Sherrill Milnes. In 1905 the Spring Tour almost ended the lives of Enrico Caruso and Marcella Sembrich, as the company narrowly escaped being crushed in the San Francisco earthquake.

Answer: Fire

It was rare that a theatre didn't burn down in those days.

Architect J. Cleaveland Cady had built the opera house at the corner of Broadway and West 39th. Although the fire completely gutted the building, the Italianate exterior remained. It was rebuilt according to the original specifications, but in 1903 the auditorium was completely redone, creating the famed 'golden horseshoe'. After the company moved to Lincoln Center in 1966, the building was razed. Today '1411 Broadway', a huge commercial tower, stands in its place.

Answer: Recorded bits of live performances at the Met on his new Edison Home Phonograph

Between 1900 and 1903 Lionel Mapleson experimented with recording live performances on wax cylinders, first from the prompter's box, then from the wings and (maybe) from the catwalk. His first recordings weren't very successful, but when he added a huge acoustic horn to his phonograph, he really started to pick up the sound. The results were the first recordings of live opera performances in the world.

Unfortunately, a lot of the Mapleson cylinders were lost, but the 100 or so that remain give listeners the unique opportunity of hearing performances by the greats of the period absolutely live, including Nellie Melba, Lillian Nordica, Edouard and Jean de Reszke, Emma Eames, and Emma Calvé. Some of them are on YouTube and worth checking.

Mapleson could have done all that other stuff in the clues too, because the fridge, the Olds and the zeppelin all existed in 1900.

Answer: Parsifal

Richard Wagner had written 'Parsifal' as a "Festival Play for the Consecration of the Stage" and he stipulated that it could only be produced at Bayreuth. Although numerous concert and abbreviated versions had taken place in Europe and South America between 1883 and 1903, it was only when the Met decided to produce the opera complete that Cosima filed. As at the time the United States did not honour international copyrights, she lost. The massive production, which necessitated the rebuilding of the proscenium and pit, was an enormous success. Alfred Hertz conducted, Alois Burgstaller played Parsifal and Kundry was sung by Milka Ternina.

The first complete Ring Cycle at the Met was staged in 1889 with designs taken from those in Bayreuth. Original productions soon followed , and Wagner has a special place in the repertoire of the Metropolitan Opera.

Answer: Salome

Richard Strauss it was. His 'Salome' was based on the Wilde play and premiered in Dresden in 1905 to great success. Although it played over most of Europe, it was banned in at Covent Garden until 1910, and in Vienna until 1918. Ironically, the short lived Manhattan Opera staged 'Salome' in 1909 and Mary Garden had one of her greatest successes in the role. Her voice was lovely, but her beauty and the body stocking she wore for the 'Dance of the Seven Veils' also helped.

Although 'Salome's' relationship with US operagoers may have been problematic, her dance found a lot of fans elsewhere. It quickly hit the burlesque circuit and a legend was born. Even Irving Berlin wrote:
"... Where is your clothes?
You better go and get your dresses
Ev'ryone here's got op'ra glasses
Oy! such a sad disgrace
No one's looking at your face
Sadie Salome, go home!" ('Sadie Salome Go Home', 1909)

Answer: It was all-American

'The Pipe of Desire', by Fredrick Converse (George Barton, libretto) was a 2-time first for the Met - first American opera on the Met stage and first opera on that stage sung in English. With one exception, the cast were also Americans and nonetheless, it only had 3 performances. Met General Manager Giulio Gatti-Casazza was not discouraged. Under his direction (1908-1935) the Met commissioned and/or mounted 14 American operas. He was also noted for hiring and promoting American singers while bringing in the greatest of the international stars.

Oh, that clue about the girl who runs a saloon? That was 'La Fanciulla del West', which was commissioned by the Met and premiered on that stage in the same year - 1910. Puccini was inspired by a Belasco play (from story by Bret Harte) and did a whole lot better than 'Pipe'. And he didn't have any New York flops.

Answer: Mrs. August Belmont Jr.

Eleanor Robson Belmont was the inspiration for Shaw's 'Major Barbara' in her career heyday. After marrying August Belmont Jr (of the 'Belmont Stakes' family), she first became involved in fundraising during World War I. It was when she started working with the Met that her genius for organization came to the fore. The founder of the Metropolitan Opera Guild in 1935, she was instrumental in developing a method of combining public with private funding for the opera company that later became a model for similar organizations. Her ingenious fundraising is arguably the major reason that the Met made it through the Great Depression intact. Mrs. Belmont died at the age of 100 in 1979.

Mrs. John (Mary Ellen) DeWitt was the founder and first editor of 'Opera News'. Consuelo Vanderbilt's mother Alva was one of the leading forces behind founding the Met back in 1883 and Mrs. Belmont's sister-in-law. Jacqueline Kennedy took ballet lessons with the Met company school as a teenager.

Answer: Texaco

This question could spawn a quiz all on its own. The first Met broadcast? Christmas Day, 1931. The host for 43 seasons? Milton Cross. Quizmaster from 1958 to 1996? Edward Downes. Everybody's favorite Opera Quiz panelist? Alberta Masiello. The opera commentator? Boris Goldovsky.

The sponsor? Texaco. In 1940 the company was taking a serious beating due to a very ugly scandal involving German spies. Sponsoring a prestigious operation like the Met seemed like a good idea and it was, because sponsorship continued right up until 2004, when Texaco merged with Chevron.

The company then decided to discontinue their support and since that time the broadcasts have continued with the generous sponsorship of Toll Brothers. Today they are broadcast through Metropolitan Opera Radio and can be heard literally all over the world.

Answer: Air

Before there was reality television, there was reality all over radio, with Major Bowes, Ted Mack and the Metropolitan Opera's 'Auditions of the Air'. Established in 1935 by manager Edward Johnson (1935-1950), it was broadcast on NBC, sponsored by Sherwin Williams Paints ('Yes, paint protects America!') and Milton Cross hosted. The program was successful enough to last all the way to 1956, but was then replaced by the more systematic and broader-reaching Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.

The 2009 documentary film 'Audition' takes an in-depth look at the 2007
National Council finals.

Eleanor Steber won in 1940, Regina Resnik in 1944, and Robert Merrill in 1945. On December 7, 1941, the Metropolitan Opera's 'Auditions of the Air' were interrupted to announce that a state of war existed with Japan.

Answer: German opera ok, Italian opera ok except for Madama Butterfly

It certainly is a pretty how-de-do when your enemies are German and Italian. It doesn't leave much of your repertoire left, and you especially don't want to strike that expensive new production of 'Tannhauser' (1944). Therefore, the Met management leaned towards French ('Mignon'1944-45), American ('The Emperor Jones', 1944) and Russian ('Boris Godunov', 1943, in support of 'our Russian allies'), but continued to produce German and Italian works. 'Madama Butterfly', however, had to go.

From 1942-45, Met audiences stood and sang the national anthem before every performance

Answer: Bing

Sir Rudolph 'My Way or the Highway' Bing is perhaps best-known as the manager who presided over the Metropolitan Opera's 1966 move to the Lincoln Center. He had a lot in common with former director Giulio Gatti-Casazza. Both were Europeans, both were autocrats, both had great organizational skills, and both had a clear vision of where they wanted the Metropolitan to go. On the other hand, in their day, Gatti-Casazza and Edward Johnson had made it a point to foster the talents of American singers, musicians and designers. Bing thought it was time to bring Europe back to America; engaging top-flight artists like Franco Zefirelli, Joan Sutherland and Placido Domingo.

One of his more controversial actions was bringing African American artists to the Met, beginning with Marion Anderson, but also he engaged freshly de-Nazified artists like Elisabeth Schwartzkopf and Herbert von Karajan. For Bing, the look was at least as important as the sound, and to that end he favoured slim(mer) and physically attractive singers. Throwing out all women's costumes over size 16 he stated that 'if you can't wear the costume, you can't sing the role'. He fired a lot of people, most notably Lauritz Melchior, Helen Traubel and Maria Callas, but established a pension fund for orchestra, chorus and crew members.

Love him or hate him, it is clear that when Sir Rudolph retired in 1972 he left the Metropolitan one of the biggest and most important houses in the world.

Answer: Software

Joseph Volpe, general manager from 990 to 2006, was known both for his sound fiscal policy and his support for technological advance. For example...

Tessitura' is software developed by the Met and first implemented in 1998. It is a program that integrates almost every aspect of the business end of an arts organization; including box office activity, customer and donor profiles, fundraising, and analysis. The most interesting aspect of 'Tessitura' is the Met's business model. They have created a cooperative 'ecosystem' where subscribers are also owners and take equal part in management. In 2009 the community consisted of 350 cultural organizations all over North America, the UK, Australia and New Zealand.

Met Titles were created and installed at the Met in 1998. Instead of titles above and below the stage, screens have been installed in the back of each seat. Each member of the audience may follow the performance with or without subtitles, as they wish. Met Opera Radio on Sirius began broadcasting in 2006, and Met Opera on Demand (with an IPad app) provides listeners with archival material as well as offerings from the current season.

The Met HD offers live performances at the Met broadcast via satellite to hundreds of cinemas and theatres all over the world. Since the first 2006 season, other companies such as the National Theatre, the Bolshoi and La Scala have now begun offering HD performances.

Answer: James Levine

James Levine conducted his first performance at the Met in 1971, in 1973 he became music director and from 1986 to 2004, the company's artistic director. In June of 2011, he conducted his 2,442th Met performance. Since he began working with the orchestra, it has become one of the finest in the world. This is perhaps due not only to the abilities of the conductor, but also because it is one of the best paid orchestra in the world. Criticism? The most often-voiced is that under Mr. Levine's direction, the orchestra plays too LOUDLY. Mr. Levine has also recorded and has worked at home and abroad, in particular with the Boston Symphony and the Munich Philharmonic.

The Metropolitan Opera orchestra has had a history of distinguished conductors, including Kurt Adler (1943-1973), Arturo Toscanini (1908-1915) and Gustav Mahler (1908-1910).