8 The Metropolitan Opera Association adamantly resisted preservation, in part because it feared competition from another opera company. 7 Some were surprised by this decision and called it “a very close vote considering the questionable quality of the architecture and the opposition from the opera company. However, the Commissioners ultimately voted 6 to 5 not to designate the building. But in September 1965, the newly formed New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission included the opera house on its first list of proposed designated landmarks. 6 The Metropolitan Opera Association planned to raze the opera house and lease the property. A new opera house would provide more seats, larger facilities, and new technology, not to mention an opportunity for the company to rebound financially. In the early 1960s, the plans for Lincoln Center promised the Metropolitan Opera a new location for their opera house. Ironically, the Metropolitan Opera Association would prove “rapacious,” becoming the “main force” against the preservation of the old opera house.
4 In 1940, ownership of the opera house shifted from the theater’s box owners to the Metropolitan Opera Association. The theater came under threat of demolition in 1938, but $1 million in gifts from the public saved the house. The interior was redesigned in 1903, and in 1906, the signature gold damask stage curtains were installed, completing the look that the “Old” Metropolitan Opera House maintained until its closing. In the early 1900s, the opera house underwent another series of transformations. The theater was gutted by fire in August 1892, but was rebuilt over the next two years along its original lines. “You were sitting in this wonderful sea of faces – it was like being in a drawing room.” 3
“I miss that house and not that I’m a great fan of opera but – that house, when you sit on the stage the balconies went straight up and they were only about 15-20 rows back – they were very short,” said Bronson Binger.
2 However, others found the “Old” Metropolitan Opera House’s intimate interior appealing. Cady, it was nicknamed “The Yellow Brick Brewery” for its industrial looking exterior. 1 Occupying the entire western side of the block between West 39 th Street and West 40 th Street, the “Old” Metropolitan Opera House opened on October 22, 1883. In all, 70 shareholders provided the $1.7 million required to buy the land and build the opera house at West 39 th Street and Broadway. In 1880, dissatisfied with the location and seating capacity of the 1854 Academy of Music opera house near Union Square, a group of wealthy businessmen opted to build their own.
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