Rudolf Bing, Met General Manager 1950–72: A nasty rumor has it that the original Metropolitan was obsolete the day it opened its doors.

The Met had known only one previous home, the original Metropolitan Opera House at Broadway and 39th Street, which had served the company since its founding in 1883, but which had long presented significant challenges. The majority of the material is drawn from interviews conducted as part of the creation of The Opera House. The oral history that follows offers an inside look into the creation and opening of the new house, with commentary from key artists and administrators of the time, current Met staff, and archival documents that contain the voices of those no longer with us. When the new Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center opened on September 16, 1966, it represented the culmination of an effort that began nearly 60 years earlier to plan, finance, and build a modern home for the Met-one that would provide the company with facilities and technology equal to its lofty artistic standards.

The metropolitan opera ny