metropolitan opera house philadelphia pa

On April 26, 1910, Arthur Hammerstein, with his father's power of attorney, sold the Philadelphia Opera House to the New York Metropolitan Opera. The company's last performance at the house was of Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto on Mawith Giovanni Polese in the title role, Lalla Miranda as Gilda, Orville Harrold as the Duke of Mantua, and Giuseppe Sturani conducting.

The POC continued to use the house for its productions through March 1910.

The cast included Maria Labia in the title role, Charles Dalmorès as Don José, Andrés de Segurola as Escamillo, Alice Zeppilli as Micaëla, and Cleofonte Campanini conducting. The opera house officially opened on Novemwith a production of Georges Bizet's Carmen for the opening of the POC's first season. When it opened as the Philadelphia Opera House in 1908, it was the largest theater of its kind in the world, seating more than 4,000 people. McElfatrick & Son to design the opera house in 1907, and construction began the following year. The Metropolitan Opera House was built by Hammerstein to be the home of his then new opera company, the Philadelphia Opera Company (POC). The opera house has been included in the National Register of Historic Places since 1972. The church stabilized much of the building, eventually paving the way for the latest renovation of the opera house in 2017–2018. The building then fell into serious disrepair and was unused and vacant from 1988 until 1995, when it became the 'Holy Ghost Headquarters Revival Center at the Met'. The Met used the theatre through 1920, after which various opera companies used the house through 1934.įor over five more decades it remained in constant use in turn as a movie theater, a ballroom, a sports venue, mechanic training center, and a church. Hammerstein sold the house to the Metropolitan Opera of New York City in 1910, when it was renamed. It was initially the home of Hammerstein's Philadelphia Opera Company, and called the 'Philadelphia Opera House'. īuilt over the course of just a few months in 1908, it was the ninth opera house built by impresario Oscar Hammerstein I. It is managed by Live Nation Philadelphia. Now known as The Met, the theatre reopened in December 2018, after a complete renovation, as a concert venue. It has been used for many different purposes over its history. The Metropolitan Opera House is a historic opera house located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Metropolitan opera house philadelphia pa