Venue

Lincoln Center for Performing Arts

Metropolitan Opera House
165 W 65th St, New York, NY 10023
lincolncenter.org

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The Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center is the current home of the famed Metropolitan Opera of New York City. The house contains approximately 3,800 seats and is located at Lincoln Center at Lincoln Square in the Upper West Side. It was designed by architect Wallace K. Harrison. Although west-east roads do not run through Lincoln Center itself, the Metropolitan Opera House is parallel to the block from West 63rd Street to West 64th Street. The rear of the House meets Amsterdam Avenue and the entrance to the Opera House is at Lincoln Center Plaza which begins at Columbus Avenue. The building is clad in white travertine and the east facade is graced with a distinctive series of five arches. On display in the lobby, and visible to the outside plaza, are two murals created for the space by Marc Chagall. The square gold proscenium is 54′ wide and 54′ high. The main curtain of custom-woven gold damask is the largest tab curtain in the world.

Although the house would not officially open for several more months, the first public performance at the new Metropolitan Opera House was a performance of Giacomo Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West on April 11, 1966 with Beverly Bower as Minnie, Gaetano Bardini as Dick Johnson, and Cesare Bardelli as Jack Rance. The production was attended by 3,000 high school students and was followed by a series of sound tests that included a loud chord from the orchestra and a blast from a pistol.

The new building officially opened on September 16, 1966, with the world premiere of Samuel Barber’s Antony and Cleopatra. The large and highly mechanized stage and support space smoothly facilitates the rotating presentation of up to four different opera productions each week. There are 7 full stage elevators, (60′ wide, with double decks) and three slipstages, the upstage one containing a 60′ diameter revolve (turntable). There are 103 motorized battens (linesets) for overhead lifting and there are two 100′ tall fully-enveloping cycloramas.

While the Met Opera Company is on hiatus, the Metropolitan Opera House is home to the annual spring season of American Ballet Theatre. It is also regularly the location for touring opera and ballet companies including the Kirov, Bolshoi, and La Scala. In addition, the Met has presented recitals by Vladimir Horowitz, Kathleen Battle and others. Philip Glass’ Einstein on the Beach was staged independently at the Met in 1976.