Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts
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.
In the first broadcast season only Hänsel und Gretel and Das Rheingold (February 26, 1932) were presented in their entirety; most operas were only heard partially.
The Met's first live closed-circuit television transmission was Carmen with Rise Stevens, sent to 31 movie theaters in 27 US cities on December 11, 1952.
[10] In the late 1930s and early 1940s the broadcasts were transmitted live via shortwave to Latin America over the NBC White Network.
[7] 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.
Emergency grants allowed the broadcasts to continue through 2005, whereupon homebuilding company Toll Brothers became the primary sponsor until June 10, 2023.
[13] Met Opera radio producer Mary Jo Heath, who filled in for Juntwait in 2015, became the new permanent host starting with the 2015–2016 season.
[15] Opera singer and director Ira Siff has for several years been the background commentator, working alongside Juntwait and Heath.
For the next ten years, the Quiz hosts were Robert Lawrence, Sigmund Spaeth, Boris Goldovsky, Deems Taylor, and Jay Harrison.
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.
Commentators for the various intermission segments during the Met broadcasts have also included Marcia Davenport who appeared weekly in the 1930s, author and radio host George Jellinek, music historian and translator William Weaver, opera critic Speight Jenkins, opera historian Alan Wagner, playwright Terrence McNally, and classics scholar Father Owen Lee.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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,[21] although for a few years thereafter they were still sometimes live and simulcast on the radio.
[5] Hundreds of archived audio operas and selections are now also available on Rhapsody, an online music service which offers free listening and downloads for payment.
The channel's host and announcer is Mary Jo Heath who took over in 2015 after the death of Margaret Juntwait, and William Berger has been the writer and commentator.
