Organization

The Metropolitan Opera is a vibrant home for the most creative and talented artists working in the multidisciplinary field of opera, including singers, conductors, composers, orchestra musicians, stage directors, designers, visual artists, choreographers, and dancers from around the world.

Known as a venue for the world's great voices for well over a century, since 1976 the Met has been under the musical direction of James Levine, who has created one of opera's finest orchestras and choruses.

Peter Gelb, the Met's new general manager, has embarked on a program to significantly increase the number of new productions, which will feature the Met debuts of the world's most imaginative directors, to further elevate the company’s theatrical standards and to secure increased commitments from the world's greatest singers.

To reinvigorate the art form, the Met is also commissioning new works and has made a commitment to producing contemporary work on an annual basis.

In order to reconnect itself with a contemporary audience and to make the opera house a more welcoming place, the Met has launched a series of wide-ranging initiatives, most recently a comprehensive and landmark new media plan to make its opera performances available regularly on multiple platforms.

These include live high-definition transmissions to movie theaters in North America and Europe; a 24-hour subscription-radio channel on SIRIUS, featuring live and historic broadcasts; and, in partnership with RealNetworks, the streaming of live performances on the Met website and archival broadcasts via Real's Rhapsody online music service.

The Met continues its hugely successful radio broadcasts, the longest-running classical music series in American broadcast history, now heard in 42 countries around the world via the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network.

Other initiatives include the Arnold and Marie Schwartz Gallery Met, which displays the work of top contemporary visual artists; annual holiday entertainment offerings; reduced ticket prices (the lowest-priced are now $15); increased media activities; expanded editorial offerings in Met publications, on the web, and through broadcasts; and new public programs that provide greater access to the Met.

The company will continue to offer Met Titles, a unique system of simultaneous translation, which appear on individual computerized screens at every seat in the opera house.

In addition to the Opera Guild's numerous education programs, the Met identifies and trains up-and-coming singers through the National Council Auditions and the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, which also trains accompanists.