The Opera House: Trailer

[BeyondGeography]

Rewarding on every level (cultural, historical, emotional), this is a documentary on the building of the Met, which opened in 1966. An incredibly operatic tale in and of itself. You can watch the whole thing on PBS online:

https://www.pbs.org/video/the-opera-house-zvpfpy/

[elleng]

1. Thanks.

Bookmarking.

[Golden Raisin]

2. It's excellent.

In addition to the building of the new Metropolitan Opera House it's a study of the neighborhood, urban planning and destruction (Robert Moses) and a vanished epoch of NYC and American history. Soprano Leontyne Price, who opened the New House at Lincoln Center, is interviewed in the documentary. At 90 she is sharp as a tack, nostalgic and retains a wonderful sense of humor. I happen to be a major opera lover and live around the corner from the New Met. I have lived in Lincoln Square (the neighborhood out of which Lincoln Center was carved) my entire adult life since graduating college (1971), so the film really resonated strongly with me.

[BeyondGeography]

3. So after that documentary I researched Rudolf Bing

and came up with this obit on his successor who died tragically before his first season; that’s how Schuyler Chapin got the job. Front page news on the NYT:

https://www.nytimes.com/1972/07/19/archives/gentele-head-of-met-dies-with-2-children-in-crash-was-bings.html

He would have been a great one, IMO.