Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts
Encyclopedia
The Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts are a regular series of weekly broadcasts on network radio
of full-length opera
performances. They are transmitted live from the stage
of the Metropolitan Opera
in New York City
. The International Metropolitan Opera Radio Network airs the live performances on Saturday afternoons while the Met is in season, typically beginning the first Saturday in December, and totalling 20 weekly performances through the end of April. The Met broadcasts are the longest-running continuous classical music
program in radio history, and the series has won several Peabody Award
s for excellence in broadcasting.
The series is currently broadcast on over 300 stations in the United States, and stations in 40 countries on five continents. These countries include Canada, Mexico, 27 European countries, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay, China, and Japan. The broadcasts are also listenable online via streaming audio; and select broadcasts and excerpts are listenable year-round on the free online service Rhapsody
.
The Met's radio broadcast history dates back to 1910
, when radio pioneer Lee De Forest
transmitted — experimentally, with erratic signal — two live partial performances from the stage of the Met, which were reportedly heard as far away as Newark, New Jersey
. The first of these was a performance of Acts II and III of Tosca
on January 12, 1910.
The first network broadcast was heard on December 25, 1931 — a performance
of Engelbert Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel. The series was created as the Met, financially endangered in the early years of the Great Depression, sought to enlarge its audience and support through national exposure on network radio. Initially, the broadcasts featured only parts of longer operas, and were limited to selected acts. Regular broadcasts of complete operas began March 11, 1933, with the full transmission of Tristan und Isolde
with Frida Leider and Lauritz Melchior
.
The live radio broadcasts were originally heard on NBC
, and became a staple of its Blue Network
. Starting in 1944 the series continued on the Blue Network's successor, ABC
, through 1958. From 1958 to 1960 the series was broadcast on CBS
. As network radio
waned with the rise of television, the Met founded its own independent Metropolitan Opera Radio Network in 1960, which is now heard on radio stations around the world.
In Canada the live broadcasts have been heard since December 1933, first on the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission
. Since 1934 they have been heard on the CRBC's successor, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
, where they currently air on CBC Radio 2 on Saturday Afternoon at the Opera
.
In December 1990, the broadcast series expanded its transmission to include Europe, via satellite transmission and the European Broadcasting Union. Australia and New Zealand joined the network in the late 1990s; Brazil and Mexico in 1999. Uruguay, Ecuador, and Japan joined in 2000. Spanish commentary and intermission features are inserted for Spanish-speaking countries.
Technical quality of the broadcasts steadily improved over the years. FM broadcasts were added in the 1950s, transmitted to stations via telephone lines. With the arrival of 1973-74 broadcasting season (December, 1973), all broadcasts were offered in FM
stereo
. Satellite
technology later allowed uniformly excellent broadcast sound to be sent live worldwide.
, the American Tobacco Company
, the Lambert Pharmaceutical Company
, and RCA
(NBC’s parent company).
Sponsorship of the Saturday afternoon broadcasts by The Texas Company (Texaco
) began on December 7, 1940, with a performance of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro. Texaco's support continued for 63 years, the longest continuous sponsorship in broadcast history, and also included the early PBS
television broadcasts. After its merger with Chevron
, however, the combined company ChevronTexaco ended its sponsorship of the Met's radio network in April, 2004. Emergency grants allowed the broadcasts to continue through 2005, whereupon the homebuilding company Toll Brothers
stepped in to become the primary sponsor.
Additional support for the broadcasts also comes from the Annenberg Foundation
, the Vincent A. Stabile Endowment for Broadcast Media, and contributions from listeners around the world.
served for 43 seasons, from the inaugural 1931 broadcast until his death in 1975. He was succeeded by Peter Allen, who presided for 29 years through the 2003-04 season. Margaret Juntwait
began her tenure as host the following season. Since September 2006, Juntwait has also served as host for all of the live and recorded broadcasts on the Met's Sirius XM satellite radio channel, Metropolitan Opera Radio.
Other announcers have included veteran classical music announcer Lloyd Moss, who twice substituted for Milton Cross, and Deems Taylor
, who was heard briefly as co-host during the early years. In recent seasons, opera broadcaster William Berger
and operatic singer and director Ira Siff have been heard as commentators along with Juntwait.
The announcer introduces each broadcast with cast information and background about the week's opera, and then introduces each act with a plot summary. Since 2006, the announcer has also been joined by a co-commentator — currently Ira Siff — who adds additional overview, insight, and personal experience to the conversation.
Because live opera includes lengthy intermissions between multiple acts, the Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts offer informative and entertaining opera-related intermission features. These include discussions of the opera being performed, roundtables, quizzes, interviews with various current and retired opera performers, and information on notable behind-the-scenes Met staff members. Since 2006, the lead singers of the day's opera have also been interviewed live as they leave the stage. Starting in December 2009, a new feature called Talking Opera explains various terminology used in the opera world.
Among the most popular intermission features is the Opera Quiz. The quiz is usually about 20 minutes long and features a host asking a panel of three or four experts questions about opera which have been submitted by listeners. Thousands of questions are submitted by listeners each year. First introduced in the 1930s as the Opera Question Forum, the Quiz was originally hosted by the noted music critic Olin Downes
and was largely serious and sober in its presentation. From 1958 to 1996 the host was Edward Downes, Olin's son. During this time the quiz became more relaxed and featured humor and banter among the panelists as well as informative answers. Frequent guest panelists during Edward Downes's tenure as host included actors Tony Randall
and Walter Slezak
in addition to well-known musicians and critics including Alberta Masiello, a Met staff musical coach. Since the death of Edward Downes, the host chair has been occupied by guest quizmasters, among whom have recently been leading Met singers. During the years that the broadcasts were sponsored by Texaco, listeners whose questions were used on air were awarded gifts that usually included opera recordings and a portable radio.
Other intermission features over the years have included Opera News on the Air, the Singers’ Roundtable, and annual interviews with the Metropolitan Opera’s general managers. Boris Goldovsky
, an opera producer and lecturer known for making opera more accessible to audiences, hosted a series of musical lectures from 1946 to the mid-1980s. Analyzing the opera being performed that day, he spoke and played the piano, illustrating his comments with musical excerpts.
Commentators for the various intermission segments during the Met broadcasts have also included author and radio host George Jellinek
, music historian and translator William Weaver
, opera critic Speight Jenkins
, opera historian Alan Wagner
, and classics scholar Father Owen Lee
.
s, the highest honor in radio broadcasting.
In 1950, the Metropolitan Opera, ABC Radio, and the Texas Company (Texaco
, the series' long-term sponsor) were awarded the Peabody Award in music for "public service in making the most brilliant opera company in the world a by-word in millions of homes." The announcement commended the "great artists," the "superlative orchestra," and the intermission features, as well as the series' spin-off programs such as the Auditions of the Air and the Opera Album.
In 1954, the Peabody committee gave a Personal Award for Radio Music to Boris Goldovsky
, via the Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts. The Peabody announcement noted Goldovsky's contagious enthusiasm for opera, evident in his decade of hosting intermission features and interviews on the Met broadcast series.
In 1960, the Texaco-Metropolitan Opera Network was awarded a Peabody Institutional Award for Radio Public Service. The Peabody committee cited 20 years of public service "of inestimable cultural value," and mentioned the carefully planned intermission programs and high-level music commentary. The committee also noted the "long-time excellence of this series, the good taste and restraint in the commercial identification," and the international use of the broadcasts.
In 1982, Texaco and the Metropolitan Opera were awarded a Peabody for excellence in both radio and television broadcasting. The Peabody committee cited the more than four decades of radio broadcasts, the continued technical refinements and improvements in sound, and the "informative intermission features, intelligent narration, and outstanding musical quality."
In 1989, its 50th year of broadcasting, the Texaco-Metropolitan Opera radio series received another Peabody Award. The committee noted that "the Met Opera has been continually innovative in its presentation. Sound quality is excellent, performances are first-rate, and the entertaining intermissions have become outstanding programs in their own right."
broadcasts from the stage of the Metropolitan Opera, called Live from the Metropolitan Opera
, began in 1977. These live broadcasts, aired on PBS
, were called simulcast
s, as they were broadcast simultaneously by both a television station and an FM stereo radio station in the same geographic areas. Through these simulcasts, listeners were able to hear the operas in stereo
, which was then unavailable on television. The first simulcast, La Bohème
, featured Luciano Pavarotti
as Rodolfo and Renata Scotto
as Mimi, with James Levine
conducting, and all three were interviewed during the intermission. In 1988, the television program title was changed to The Metropolitan Opera Presents, to accommodate the fact that the performances at that point were often taped prior to broadcast, although for a few years thereafter they were still sometimes live and simulcast on the radio.
On December 30, 2006, the Met expanded its live broadcast series tradition by premiering the Metropolitan Opera Live in HD series, which transmits live Met performances in high definition video to select movie theaters and other venues across the U.S. and other parts of the world. These broadcasts are usually also aired on television several months later on the new PBS series, Great Performances at the Met. Other recent broadcast expansion efforts by the Met include the Metropolitan Opera Radio channel on Sirius XM Radio (launched in 2006), Rhapsody
on-demand listening and
iPod
downloads, and live streaming audio and video on the Met website.
Year round, online archived video and audio of hundreds of complete operas and excerpts are available via the Met Player. Hundreds of archived audio operas and selections are also available year-round on Rhapsody
, a service which is free for listening and downloadable with payment.
A further year-round listening venue is the Metropolitan Opera Radio channel on Sirius XM Radio, launched in 2006. The channel airs performances from among the 1,500 recorded broadcasts in the Metropolitan Opera radio broadcast archives, in addition to live broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera three to four evenings each week during the opera season. The channel's host and announcer is Margaret Juntwait
, and William Berger
is the writer and co-host.
The Met's official site provides complete composer and background information, detailed plot summaries, and cast and characters for all current and upcoming opera broadcasts, as well as for every opera broadcast since 2000. In addition, the Met's online archive provides links to all Rhapsody, Sirius XM, and Met Player operas, with complete program and cast information. The online archive also provides an exhaustive searchable list of every performance and performer in the Metropolitan Opera's history.
Listening
History
Articles
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
of full-length opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
performances. They are transmitted live from the stage
Stage (theatre)
In theatre or performance arts, the stage is a designated space for the performance productions. The stage serves as a space for actors or performers and a focal point for the members of the audience...
of the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. The International Metropolitan Opera Radio Network airs the live performances on Saturday afternoons while the Met is in season, typically beginning the first Saturday in December, and totalling 20 weekly performances through the end of April. The Met broadcasts are the longest-running continuous classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
program in radio history, and the series has won several Peabody Award
Peabody Award
The George Foster Peabody Awards recognize distinguished and meritorious public service by radio and television stations, networks, producing organizations and individuals. In 1939, the National Association of Broadcasters formed a committee to recognize outstanding achievement in radio broadcasting...
s for excellence in broadcasting.
The series is currently broadcast on over 300 stations in the United States, and stations in 40 countries on five continents. These countries include Canada, Mexico, 27 European countries, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay, China, and Japan. The broadcasts are also listenable online via streaming audio; and select broadcasts and excerpts are listenable year-round on the free online service Rhapsody
Rhapsody (online music service)
Rhapsody is an online music store subscription service, launched in December 2001, and available in the United States only. On April 6, 2010, Rhapsody officially declared its independence from RealNetworks. Downloaded files come with restrictions on their use, enforced by Helix, Rhapsody's version...
.
History
Birth of public radio broadcasting
Birth of public radio broadcasting is credited to Lee de Forest. A 1907 Lee De Forest company advertisement said, -Date:On January 13, 1910, the first public radio broadcast was an experimental transmission of a live Metropolitan Opera House performance of several famous opera...
, when radio pioneer Lee De Forest
Lee De Forest
Lee De Forest was an American inventor with over 180 patents to his credit. De Forest invented the Audion, a vacuum tube that takes relatively weak electrical signals and amplifies them. De Forest is one of the fathers of the "electronic age", as the Audion helped to usher in the widespread use...
transmitted — experimentally, with erratic signal — two live partial performances from the stage of the Met, which were reportedly heard as far away as Newark, New Jersey
Newark, New Jersey
Newark is the largest city in the American state of New Jersey, and the seat of Essex County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Newark had a population of 277,140, maintaining its status as the largest municipality in New Jersey. It is the 68th largest city in the U.S...
. The first of these was a performance of Acts II and III of Tosca
Tosca
Tosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900...
on January 12, 1910.
The first network broadcast was heard on December 25, 1931 — a performance
of Engelbert Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel. The series was created as the Met, financially endangered in the early years of the Great Depression, sought to enlarge its audience and support through national exposure on network radio. Initially, the broadcasts featured only parts of longer operas, and were limited to selected acts. Regular broadcasts of complete operas began March 11, 1933, with the full transmission of Tristan und Isolde
Tristan und Isolde
Tristan und Isolde is an opera, or music drama, in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the romance by Gottfried von Straßburg. It was composed between 1857 and 1859 and premiered in Munich on 10 June 1865 with Hans von Bülow conducting...
with Frida Leider and Lauritz Melchior
Lauritz Melchior
Lauritz Melchior was a Danish and later American opera singer. He was the pre-eminent Wagnerian tenor of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, and has since come to be considered the quintessence of his voice type.-Biography:...
.
The live radio broadcasts were originally heard on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
, and became a staple of its Blue Network
Blue Network
The Blue Network, and its immediate predecessor, the NBC Blue Network, were the on-air names of an American radio production and distribution service from 1927 to 1945...
. Starting in 1944 the series continued on the Blue Network's successor, ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
, through 1958. From 1958 to 1960 the series was broadcast on CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
. As network radio
Radio network
There are two types of radio networks currently in use around the world: the one-to-many broadcast type commonly used for public information and mass media entertainment; and the two-way type used more commonly for public safety and public services such as police, fire, taxicabs, and delivery...
waned with the rise of television, the Met founded its own independent Metropolitan Opera Radio Network in 1960, which is now heard on radio stations around the world.
In Canada the live broadcasts have been heard since December 1933, first on the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission
Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission
The Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission was Canada's first public broadcaster and the immediate precursor to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.-Origins:...
. Since 1934 they have been heard on the CRBC's successor, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
, where they currently air on CBC Radio 2 on Saturday Afternoon at the Opera
Saturday Afternoon at the Opera
Saturday Afternoon at the Opera is a Canadian radio program, which airs Saturday afternoons on CBC Radio 2. Currently hosted by Bill Richardson, the program airs live and pre-recorded opera concert performances, as well as interviews with opera artists, reviews of opera CDs and a weekly opera quiz...
.
In December 1990, the broadcast series expanded its transmission to include Europe, via satellite transmission and the European Broadcasting Union. Australia and New Zealand joined the network in the late 1990s; Brazil and Mexico in 1999. Uruguay, Ecuador, and Japan joined in 2000. Spanish commentary and intermission features are inserted for Spanish-speaking countries.
Technical quality of the broadcasts steadily improved over the years. FM broadcasts were added in the 1950s, transmitted to stations via telephone lines. With the arrival of 1973-74 broadcasting season (December, 1973), all broadcasts were offered in FM
FM broadcasting
FM broadcasting is a broadcasting technology pioneered by Edwin Howard Armstrong which uses frequency modulation to provide high-fidelity sound over broadcast radio. The term "FM band" describes the "frequency band in which FM is used for broadcasting"...
stereo
Stereophonic sound
The term Stereophonic, commonly called stereo, sound refers to any method of sound reproduction in which an attempt is made to create an illusion of directionality and audible perspective...
. Satellite
Communications satellite
A communications satellite is an artificial satellite stationed in space for the purpose of telecommunications...
technology later allowed uniformly excellent broadcast sound to be sent live worldwide.
Sponsors
Financing the Met broadcasts during the Depression years of the 1930s proved to be problematic, moving between NBCNBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
, the American Tobacco Company
American Tobacco Company
The American Tobacco Company was a tobacco company founded in 1890 by J. B. Duke through a merger between a number of U.S. tobacco manufacturers including Allen and Ginter and Goodwin & Company...
, the Lambert Pharmaceutical Company
Pfizer
Pfizer, Inc. is an American multinational pharmaceutical corporation. The company is based in New York City, New York with its research headquarters in Groton, Connecticut, United States...
, and RCA
RCA
RCA Corporation, founded as the Radio Corporation of America, was an American electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. The RCA trademark is currently owned by the French conglomerate Technicolor SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Technicolor...
(NBC’s parent company).
Sponsorship of the Saturday afternoon broadcasts by The Texas Company (Texaco
Texaco
Texaco is the name of an American oil retail brand. Its flagship product is its fuel "Texaco with Techron". It also owns the Havoline motor oil brand....
) began on December 7, 1940, with a performance of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro. Texaco's support continued for 63 years, the longest continuous sponsorship in broadcast history, and also included the early PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
television broadcasts. After its merger with Chevron
Chevron Corporation
Chevron Corporation is an American multinational energy corporation headquartered in San Ramon, California, United States and active in more than 180 countries. It is engaged in every aspect of the oil, gas, and geothermal energy industries, including exploration and production; refining,...
, however, the combined company ChevronTexaco ended its sponsorship of the Met's radio network in April, 2004. Emergency grants allowed the broadcasts to continue through 2005, whereupon the homebuilding company Toll Brothers
Toll Brothers
Toll Brothers is a Horsham, Pennsylvania based luxury homes builder.-Company Overview:Toll Brothers is a residential and commercial real estate development company with communities in 50 markets throughout 19 states...
stepped in to become the primary sponsor.
Additional support for the broadcasts also comes from the Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Foundation
The Annenberg Foundation is a private foundation that provides funding and support to non-profit organizations in the United States and around the world...
, the Vincent A. Stabile Endowment for Broadcast Media, and contributions from listeners around the world.
Announcers
In the seven decades of its Saturday broadcasts, the Met has been introduced by the voices of only three permanent announcers. Veteran NBC announcer Milton CrossMilton Cross
Milton John Cross was an American radio announcer famous for his work on the NBC and ABC radio networks.He was best known as the voice of the Metropolitan Opera, hosting its Saturday afternoon radio broadcasts for 43 years, from the time of their inception in 1931 until his death in...
served for 43 seasons, from the inaugural 1931 broadcast until his death in 1975. He was succeeded by Peter Allen, who presided for 29 years through the 2003-04 season. Margaret Juntwait
Margaret Juntwait
Margaret Juntwait is an American radio broadcaster who is the voice of the Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts. She debuted in this position on December 11, 2004, replacing Peter Allen upon his retirement after twenty-nine years.-Life and career:...
began her tenure as host the following season. Since September 2006, Juntwait has also served as host for all of the live and recorded broadcasts on the Met's Sirius XM satellite radio channel, Metropolitan Opera Radio.
Other announcers have included veteran classical music announcer Lloyd Moss, who twice substituted for Milton Cross, and Deems Taylor
Deems Taylor
Joseph Deems Taylor was a U.S. composer, music critic, and promoter of classical music.-Career:Taylor initially planned to become an architect; however, despite minimal musical training he soon took to music composition. The result was a series of works for orchestra and/or voices...
, who was heard briefly as co-host during the early years. In recent seasons, opera broadcaster William Berger
William Berger (author)
William Berger is an American author, radio music host and commentator.Born in California 25 January 1961, studied Romance languages and musicology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. For five years he worked in the San Francisco Opera, being responsible for acquiring company’s records...
and operatic singer and director Ira Siff have been heard as commentators along with Juntwait.
The announcer introduces each broadcast with cast information and background about the week's opera, and then introduces each act with a plot summary. Since 2006, the announcer has also been joined by a co-commentator — currently Ira Siff — who adds additional overview, insight, and personal experience to the conversation.
Intermission features
Among the most popular intermission features is the Opera Quiz. The quiz is usually about 20 minutes long and features a host asking a panel of three or four experts questions about opera which have been submitted by listeners. Thousands of questions are submitted by listeners each year. First introduced in the 1930s as the Opera Question Forum, the Quiz was originally hosted by the noted music critic Olin Downes
Olin Downes
Olin Downes was an American music critic.He studied piano, music theory, and music criticism in New York and Boston, and it was in those two cities that he made his career as a music critic—first with the Boston Post and then with the New York Times...
and was largely serious and sober in its presentation. From 1958 to 1996 the host was Edward Downes, Olin's son. During this time the quiz became more relaxed and featured humor and banter among the panelists as well as informative answers. Frequent guest panelists during Edward Downes's tenure as host included actors Tony Randall
Tony Randall
Tony Randall was a U.S. actor, comic, producer and director.-Early years:Randall was born Arthur Leonard Rosenberg to a Jewish family in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the son of Julia and Mogscha Rosenberg, an art and antiques dealer...
and Walter Slezak
Walter Slezak
Walter Slezak was a portly Austrian character actor who appeared in numerous Hollywood films. Slezak often portrayed villains or thugs, most notably the German U-boat captain in Alfred Hitchcock's film Lifeboat , but occasionally he got to play lighter roles, as in The Wonderful World of the...
in addition to well-known musicians and critics including Alberta Masiello, a Met staff musical coach. Since the death of Edward Downes, the host chair has been occupied by guest quizmasters, among whom have recently been leading Met singers. During the years that the broadcasts were sponsored by Texaco, listeners whose questions were used on air were awarded gifts that usually included opera recordings and a portable radio.
Other intermission features over the years have included Opera News on the Air, the Singers’ Roundtable, and annual interviews with the Metropolitan Opera’s general managers. Boris Goldovsky
Boris Goldovsky
Boris Goldovsky was a Russian conductor and broadcast commentator, active in the United States. He has been called an important "popularizer" of opera in America...
, an opera producer and lecturer known for making opera more accessible to audiences, hosted a series of musical lectures from 1946 to the mid-1980s. Analyzing the opera being performed that day, he spoke and played the piano, illustrating his comments with musical excerpts.
Commentators for the various intermission segments during the Met broadcasts have also included author and radio host George Jellinek
George Jellinek
George Jellinek was the Hungarian-born host of The Vocal Scene, a weekly syndicated radio feature produced by WQXR radio of New York City...
, music historian and translator William Weaver
William Weaver
William Fense Weaver is an English language translator of modern Italian literature.-Biography:William Weaver is perhaps best known for his translations of the work of Umberto Eco and Italo Calvino, and has translated many other Italian authors over the course of a career spanning more than fifty...
, opera critic Speight Jenkins
Speight Jenkins
Speight Jenkins Jr is the general director of Seattle Opera. Jenkins, a native of Dallas, Texas, is the son of Speight Jenkins Sr and Sara Baird Jenkins. His B.A. degree is from the University of Texas at Austin, and he graduated in 1961 from Columbia Law School. He served in the US Army, and...
, opera historian Alan Wagner
Alan Wagner
Alan Cyril Wagner was an American television executive, radio personality, writer, and opera historian and critic...
, and classics scholar Father Owen Lee
M. Owen Lee
M. Owen Lee, also known as Father Owen Lee , is an American classics and music scholar.Father Lee has been a member of the Basilian Fathers since 1947...
.
Peabody Awards
The Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts have won over 60 awards, including multiple Peabody AwardPeabody Award
The George Foster Peabody Awards recognize distinguished and meritorious public service by radio and television stations, networks, producing organizations and individuals. In 1939, the National Association of Broadcasters formed a committee to recognize outstanding achievement in radio broadcasting...
s, the highest honor in radio broadcasting.
In 1950, the Metropolitan Opera, ABC Radio, and the Texas Company (Texaco
Texaco
Texaco is the name of an American oil retail brand. Its flagship product is its fuel "Texaco with Techron". It also owns the Havoline motor oil brand....
, the series' long-term sponsor) were awarded the Peabody Award in music for "public service in making the most brilliant opera company in the world a by-word in millions of homes." The announcement commended the "great artists," the "superlative orchestra," and the intermission features, as well as the series' spin-off programs such as the Auditions of the Air and the Opera Album.
In 1954, the Peabody committee gave a Personal Award for Radio Music to Boris Goldovsky
Boris Goldovsky
Boris Goldovsky was a Russian conductor and broadcast commentator, active in the United States. He has been called an important "popularizer" of opera in America...
, via the Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts. The Peabody announcement noted Goldovsky's contagious enthusiasm for opera, evident in his decade of hosting intermission features and interviews on the Met broadcast series.
In 1960, the Texaco-Metropolitan Opera Network was awarded a Peabody Institutional Award for Radio Public Service. The Peabody committee cited 20 years of public service "of inestimable cultural value," and mentioned the carefully planned intermission programs and high-level music commentary. The committee also noted the "long-time excellence of this series, the good taste and restraint in the commercial identification," and the international use of the broadcasts.
In 1982, Texaco and the Metropolitan Opera were awarded a Peabody for excellence in both radio and television broadcasting. The Peabody committee cited the more than four decades of radio broadcasts, the continued technical refinements and improvements in sound, and the "informative intermission features, intelligent narration, and outstanding musical quality."
In 1989, its 50th year of broadcasting, the Texaco-Metropolitan Opera radio series received another Peabody Award. The committee noted that "the Met Opera has been continually innovative in its presentation. Sound quality is excellent, performances are first-rate, and the entertaining intermissions have become outstanding programs in their own right."
Simulcasts and beyond
In conjunction with the live radio broadcasts, a series of live televisionTelevision
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
broadcasts from the stage of the Metropolitan Opera, called Live from the Metropolitan Opera
Live from the Met
Live from the Metropolitan Opera is an American television program that presented performances of complete operas from the Metropolitan Opera, New York City, on the Public Broadcasting Service television network. The program began in 1977, and was telecast live for its first few seasons...
, began in 1977. These live broadcasts, aired on PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
, were called simulcast
Simulcast
Simulcast, shorthand for "simultaneous broadcast", refers to programs or events broadcast across more than one medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at the same time. For example, Absolute Radio is simulcast on both AM and on satellite radio, and the BBC's Prom concerts are often...
s, as they were broadcast simultaneously by both a television station and an FM stereo radio station in the same geographic areas. Through these simulcasts, listeners were able to hear the operas in stereo
Stereophonic sound
The term Stereophonic, commonly called stereo, sound refers to any method of sound reproduction in which an attempt is made to create an illusion of directionality and audible perspective...
, which was then unavailable on television. The first simulcast, La Bohème
La bohème
La bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...
, featured Luciano Pavarotti
Luciano Pavarotti
right|thumb|Luciano Pavarotti performing at the opening of the Constantine Palace in [[Strelna]], 31 May 2003. The concert was part of the celebrations for the 300th anniversary of [[St...
as Rodolfo and Renata Scotto
Renata Scotto
Renata Scotto is an Italian soprano and opera director.Recognized for her sense of style, musicality and as a remarkable singer-actress, Scotto is considered one of the preeminent singers of her generation, specializing in the bel canto repertoire with excursions into the verismo and Verdi...
as Mimi, with James Levine
James Levine
James Lawrence Levine is an American conductor and pianist. He is currently the music director of the Metropolitan Opera and former music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Levine's first performance conducting the Metropolitan Opera was on June 5, 1971, and as of May 2011 he has...
conducting, and all three were interviewed during the intermission. In 1988, the television program title was changed to The Metropolitan Opera Presents, to accommodate the fact that the performances at that point were often taped prior to broadcast, although for a few years thereafter they were still sometimes live and simulcast on the radio.
On December 30, 2006, the Met expanded its live broadcast series tradition by premiering the Metropolitan Opera Live in HD series, which transmits live Met performances in high definition video to select movie theaters and other venues across the U.S. and other parts of the world. These broadcasts are usually also aired on television several months later on the new PBS series, Great Performances at the Met. Other recent broadcast expansion efforts by the Met include the Metropolitan Opera Radio channel on Sirius XM Radio (launched in 2006), Rhapsody
Rhapsody (online music service)
Rhapsody is an online music store subscription service, launched in December 2001, and available in the United States only. On April 6, 2010, Rhapsody officially declared its independence from RealNetworks. Downloaded files come with restrictions on their use, enforced by Helix, Rhapsody's version...
on-demand listening and
iPod
IPod
iPod is a line of portable media players created and marketed by Apple Inc. The product line-up currently consists of the hard drive-based iPod Classic, the touchscreen iPod Touch, the compact iPod Nano, and the ultra-compact iPod Shuffle...
downloads, and live streaming audio and video on the Met website.
Listening
The live Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts are listenable in real time every Saturday during its broadcast season, which typically runs from early December through the end of April. These broadcasts may be accessed via hundreds of radio stations worldwide (the official website provides a station finder), or via free live streaming internet transmission on the Allegro site and elsewhere.Year round, online archived video and audio of hundreds of complete operas and excerpts are available via the Met Player. Hundreds of archived audio operas and selections are also available year-round on Rhapsody
Rhapsody (online music service)
Rhapsody is an online music store subscription service, launched in December 2001, and available in the United States only. On April 6, 2010, Rhapsody officially declared its independence from RealNetworks. Downloaded files come with restrictions on their use, enforced by Helix, Rhapsody's version...
, a service which is free for listening and downloadable with payment.
A further year-round listening venue is the Metropolitan Opera Radio channel on Sirius XM Radio, launched in 2006. The channel airs performances from among the 1,500 recorded broadcasts in the Metropolitan Opera radio broadcast archives, in addition to live broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera three to four evenings each week during the opera season. The channel's host and announcer is Margaret Juntwait
Margaret Juntwait
Margaret Juntwait is an American radio broadcaster who is the voice of the Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts. She debuted in this position on December 11, 2004, replacing Peter Allen upon his retirement after twenty-nine years.-Life and career:...
, and William Berger
William Berger (author)
William Berger is an American author, radio music host and commentator.Born in California 25 January 1961, studied Romance languages and musicology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. For five years he worked in the San Francisco Opera, being responsible for acquiring company’s records...
is the writer and co-host.
The Met's official site provides complete composer and background information, detailed plot summaries, and cast and characters for all current and upcoming opera broadcasts, as well as for every opera broadcast since 2000. In addition, the Met's online archive provides links to all Rhapsody, Sirius XM, and Met Player operas, with complete program and cast information. The online archive also provides an exhaustive searchable list of every performance and performer in the Metropolitan Opera's history.
See also
- Metropolitan OperaMetropolitan OperaThe Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
- Metropolitan Opera Radio (Sirius XM)
- Live from the Metropolitan Opera
- Metropolitan Opera Live in HD
External links
Official site- Official site
- MetOpera archives (database)
- Intermission Features Full transcripts from December 1998 through April 2006
Listening
- National and international station finder
- Metropolitan Opera via Streaming Audio
- Met Player On-demand video and audio
- The Met on RhapsodyRhapsody (online music service)Rhapsody is an online music store subscription service, launched in December 2001, and available in the United States only. On April 6, 2010, Rhapsody officially declared its independence from RealNetworks. Downloaded files come with restrictions on their use, enforced by Helix, Rhapsody's version...
History
- Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network Broadcast History
- Network Histories – The Texaco-Metropolitan Opera Network
- History of Metropolitan Opera Broadcasts
Articles
- "Radio: Opera Buff." TimeTime (magazine)Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
(1939) - "The Met on Radio And Its Impact On American Taste." New York Times (1989)
- "Opera, Saturday Afternoon, Live." New York Times (1989)
- "Push to Rescue Met Recordings." New York Times (2005)