Edmund C. Stanton

He began his professional life in the insurance field in Manhattan during which time he became close friends with the Vanderbilt family who played a leading role in the establishment of the Metropolitan Opera ("the Met").

In 1883-1884 he served as the Secretary of the Board of the Met during the genesis of the company, and took an instrumental part in raising funds to complete the building of the Metropolitan Opera House.

[7] According to his great nephew, the writer and historian Louis Auchincloss,[8] Stanton family legend holds that there may have been a romance between Edmund and Florence Vanderbilt, but there is no evidence to substantiate this.

Stanton's pre-existing relationship with the Vanderbilts and the other principal backers of the Met during its genesis led him to be appointed as the Secretary of the Board of the newly established opera organization.

[13] Conductor Leopold Damrosch, founder of the Oratorio Society of New York, was ultimately selected by the Met's board as the opera house's second general manager.

[18] Stanton believed in a repertory ensemble approach to casting in which resident artists performed the opera repertoire rather than bringing in stars from outside the company to fill the leading roles.

Some of the singers who were a part of the Met's resident company under Stanton included tenors Max Alvary and Andreas Dippel, contralto Marianne Brandt, baritones Adolf Robinson and Joseph Beck, bass Emil Fischer, and sopranos Sophie Traubmann and Lilli Lehmann; the latter of whom was the company's prima donna.

[23] The company presented staged versions of the United States premieres of multiple operas by Wagner during Stanton's tenure with Seidl conducting the first American performances of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (1886), Tristan Und Isolde (1886), Siegfried (1887), Götterdämmerung (1888), and Das Rheingold (1889).

[32] In January 1891 the company staged the United State premiere of German prince Ernst II of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha's Diana von Solange to disastrous results.

[34] On a visit to Europe while still at the Met, Stanton heard the Vienna Conservatory trained violin prodigy Fritz Kreisler, and subsequently organized a concert tour of the United States featuring the 13 year old violinist.

[35] After his tenure at the Met, Stanton formed a partnership with the theatrical manger A. M. Palmer which ultimately proved unsuccessful and was financially disastrous.