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Background

The Metropolitan Opera's first performance was given on 22 October 1883 at its former home on the junction of Broadway and 39th Street in New York City: a staging of Charles Gounod's Faust starring Italo Campanini in the title role and Christine Nilsson as Marguerite. With the one hundredth anniversary of that occasion chancing to fall on a Saturday, the Met chose to commemorate its centenary with a two-part gala comprising a matinée at 2 p.m. and an evening session at 8 p.m.^[1]

More than seventy singers were invited to participate, chosen either for their eminence or their long association with the house. Performing on a series of sets created by the most distinguished designers in the Met's history, they sang arias, duets and ensembles from an eclectic range of operas as well as a few items drawn from other genres. There were also contributions from the Met's chorus and resident ballet company as well as some purely orchestral selections.^[1]

The entire event was broadcast live on both radio and television in the United States and in some other countries. The US television broadcast was supported by a grant from the Texaco Philanthropic Foundation, Inc., with supplementary help from the Charles E. Culpeper Foundation, Inc., and the National Endowment For the Arts. The production of Deutsche Grammophon's DVD of the gala was supported by the Charles A. Dana Foundation.^[1]^[2]

Production

Performances

Matinee session^[3]^[1]

Performer(s)	Piece	Opera	Composer	Conductor	Home media
Anthony A. Bliss, General Manager	Spoken greeting	N/A	N/A	N/A	N
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra	Overture	The Bartered Bride	Bedřich Smetana	James Levine	Y
Éva Marton	"In questa reggia"	Turandot	Giacomo Puccini	Levine	Y
Jessye Norman and Jess Thomas	Act I Duet	Die Walküre	Richard Wagner	Levine	N
Kiri Te Kanawa	"E Susanna non vien! ... Dove sono i bei momenti"	Le nozze di Figaro	Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart	Levine	Y
Isola Jones, Shirley Love, Louise Wohlafka, Charles Anthony, James Courtney	Act II Quintet	Carmen	Georges Bizet	Levine	N
James McCracken	"Dio! Mi potevi scagliar",	Otello	Giuseppe Verdi	Levine	Y
Evelyn Lear and Thomas Stewart	"Bess you is my woman now"	Porgy and Bess	George Gershwin	Levine	N
Régine Crespin	Habañera	Carmen	Bizet	Levine	N
Ruggero Raimondi	"La calunnia è un venticello"	Il barbiere di Siviglia	Gioachino Rossini	Richard Bonynge	Y
Dano Raffanti, Brian Schexnayder, Roberta Peters, Julien Robbins, Loretta Di Franco and Robert Nagy	Sextet	Lucia di Lammermoor	Gaetano Donizetti	Bonynge	Y
James Morris	Medley	The Man of La Mancha	Mitch Leigh	Bonynge	N
Joan Sutherland	"Bel raggio lusinghier",	Semiramide	Rossini	Bonynge	Y
Metropolitan Opera Chorus	Prelude: "Son io! Son io la vita" (Hymn to the Sun)	Iris	Pietro Mascagni	David Stivender	Y
Frederica von Stade and Judith Blegen	"Mir ist die Ehre widerfahren"	Der Rosenkavalier	Richard Strauss	Jeffrey Tate	Y
Richard Cassilly	"When the sky grows brighter"	Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny	Kurt Weill	Tate	N
Betsy Norden and Christian Boesch	Papagena-Papageno Duet	Die Zauberflöte	Mozart	Tate	N
Catherine Malfitano and Alfredo Kraus	"Va! Je t'ai pardonné... Nuit d'hyménée"	Roméo et Juliette	Charles Gounod	Tate	Y
Nicolai Gedda	"Una furtive lagrima"	L'elisir d'amore	Donizetti	Levine	Y
Bianca Berini and Louis Quilico	Reverenza	Falstaff (opera)	Verdi	Levine	N
Anna Tomowa-Sintow	"Surta è la note... Ernani! Ernani, involami"	Ernani	Verdi	Levine	Y
Elisabeth Söderström, Kathleen Battle and Frederica von Stade	"Hab mir's gelobt"	Der Rosenkavalier	Richard Strauss	Levine	Y
Plácido Domingo and Mirella Freni	"Già nella notte densa"	Otello	Verdi	Levine	Y

Evening session^[4]^[1]

Performer(s)	Piece	Opera	Composer	Conductor	Home media
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra	Leonore Overture No. 3	Fidelio	Ludwig van Beethoven	Leonard Bernstein	Y
José Carreras and Montserrat Caballé	"Vicino a te s'acqueta l'irrequieta anima"	Andrea Chénier	Umberto Giordano	Levine	Y
Paul Plishka	Prince Gremin's Aria	Eugene Onegin	’’’[[[Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky]]’’’	Levine	N
Giuseppe Giacomini	Ch'ella mi creda	La Fanciulla del West	Puccini	Levine	N
Myra Merritt and John Cheek	Là ci darem la mano	Don Giovanni:	Mozart	John Pritchard	N
Gösta Winbergh and Vernon Hartman	O Mimì tu più non torni	La Bohème	Puccini	Pritchard	N
Ileana Cotrubas	"L'année en vain chasse l'année"	L'enfant prodigue	Claude Debussy	Pritchard	Y
Mariella Devia and Jean Kraft	Viens Mallika	Lakmé	’’’Leo Delibes’’’	Pritchard	N
Barbara Daniels and Italo Tajo	Signorina in tanta fretta	Don Pasquale	Donizetti	Pritchard	N
Carol Neblett and Simon Estes	Wie aus der Ferne	Der Fliegende Holländer	Wagner	Levine	N
Andrea Velis and Cornell MacNeil	Ebbene Donnina innamorata; Nemico della patria	Andrea Chénier	Giordano	Levine	N
Martina Arroyo and Mignon Dunn	Fu la sorte	Aida:	Verdi	Levine	N
Linda Gelinas (dancer), Ricardo Costa (dancer) and the Metropolitan Opera Ballet,	Bacchanale (ballet)	Samson et Dalila	Camille Saint-Saëns	Levine	Y
Ermanno Mauro and Pablo Elvira	Act I Duet	Don Carlo	Verdi	Thomas Fulton	N
Anna Moffo and Robert Merrill	Sweethearts	Maytime:	?	Fulton	N
Johanna Meier, Rosalind Elias, Regina Resnik, John Alexander, John Macurdy	Quintet	Vanessa	’’’Samuel Barber’’’	Fulton	N
Jerome Hines	Vecchia zimarra	La Bohème	Puccini	Fulton	N
Lucine Amara and Bianca Berini	L'amo come il fulgor del creato!	La Gioconda	’’’Amilcare Ponchielli’’’	Fulton	N
Renato Bruson and Grace Bumbry	"Donna, chi sei?"	Nabucco	Verdi	Fulton	Y
Nicolai Ghiaurov, Katia Ricciarelli and William Lewis	"Alerte! Ou vous êtes perdus!"	Faust	Gounod	Levine	Y
Giuliano Ciannella and Leona Mitchell	"Bimba dagli occhi pieni di malia"	Madama Butterfly	Puccini	Levine	Y
Timothy Jenkins	Allmächt'ger Vater	Rienzi	Wagner	Levine	N
Edda Moser, Diane Kesling, David Rendall, Gail Dubinbaum, Ara Berberian, John Darrenkamp, Sesto Bruscantini, and members of the Metropolitan Opera Chorus	"Pria di dividerci de voi, signore"	L'italiana in Algeri	Rossini	Levine	Y
Neil Shicoff, Michael Best, and the Metropolitan Opera Chorus	Va pour Kleinzach	Les Contes d'Hoffmann	’’’Jacques Offenbach’’’	Levine	N
Marilyn Horne	"Mon cœur s'ouvre à ta voix"	Samson et Dalila	Saint-Saëns	Levine	Y
Birgit Nilsson	"Wie lachend sie mir Lieder singen" (Narrative and Curse)	Tristan und Isolde	Wagner	Levine	Y
Birgit Nilsson	"Fjorton år tror jag visst att jag var" ("When I was seventeen")	N/A	Traditional	Levine	Y
Luciano Pavarotti and Leontyne Price	"Teco io sto" – "Gran dio!"	Un ballo in maschera	Verdi	Levine	Y
Full Company	"Happy birthday to you"	N/A	Patty Hill and Mildred J. Hill (attributed)	N/A	Y

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e The Metropolitan Opera Centennial Gala, Deutsche Grammophon DVD, 00440-073-4548, 2009
^ Cite error: The named reference piodvd was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Cite error: The named reference Met1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Cite error: The named reference Met2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[d-1] The Metropolitan Opera Centennial Gala, Deutsche Grammophon DVD, 00440-073-4548, 2009

[piodvd-2] Cite error: The named reference piodvd was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[Met1-3] Cite error: The named reference Met1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[Met2-4] Cite error: The named reference Met2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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Background

Production

Performances

Matinee session[3][1]

Evening session[4][1]

Matinee session^[3]^[1]

Evening session^[4]^[1]