Metropolitan Opera Orchestra
New York's Metropolitan Opera Orchestra dates back as an established ensemble almost to the Metropolitan Opera's founding in the 1880s. The orchestra has been led by legendary conductors of the 20th and 21st centuries, including Arturo Toscanini, George Szell, and James Levine.
New York upper-crust families launched an effort to establish a world-class opera company in 1880, and the Metropolitan Opera was launched with the 1883-1884 season. August Vianesia was the music director but was soon replaced in 1886 by Anton Seidl, a protégé of Wagner who molded the orchestra into a first-class group along German lines before departing in 1897. Other important early conductors included Alfred Hertz, Gustav Mahler (1908-1910), and Toscanini, who headed the orchestra from 1908 to 1915. Orchestra members by the 1930s earned starting salaries of some $10,000, less than the superstar singers the company engaged but more than what most other orchestras paid, and ever since then, a seat in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra has been a plum assignment for orchestral musicians.
Through the middle of the 20th century and beyond, the Metropolitan Opera was led by European-born conductors who were also prominent in the field of orchestral music, including Szell, Bruno Walter (1941-1951), Fritz Reiner, Erich Leinsdorf, and Dmitri Mitropoulos. The company pioneered operatic broadcasts on radio (from 1930) and television (from 1940), which arguably increased the prominence of the orchestra since audiences experienced no visual component; broadcasts, now including those via the Internet, have remained important to the Met's mission. Doubtless, the most significant of the orchestra's more recent conductors has been James Levine, whose career ended under a cloud but who shaped bold interpretations, many of them in part orchestrally based, for decades. Levine was succeeded by Fabio Luisi and by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, music director since 2018. The orchestra has issued several recordings independent of operatic productions, including one of Wagner's orchestral music and, in 2022, A Concert for Ukraine.
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Richard Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier (Live)
Klassik - Erschienen bei Walhall Eternity Series am 01.09.2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Samuel Barber: Vanessa (1958), Vol. 1
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Eleanor Steber
Oper - Erschienen bei Classical Moments am 01.01.1958
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi: Aida (Live)
Oper - Erschienen bei Walhall Eternity Series am 02.09.2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Wagner: Tristan und Isolde (Live)
Oper - Erschienen bei Walhall Eternity Series am 01.11.2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Saint-Saëns: Samson et Dalila, extraits (Mono Version)
Risë Stevens, Mario del Monaco, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Fausto Cleva
Verschiedenes - Erschienen bei BNF Collection am 01.01.1959
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Gounod: Faust (Live Recordings 1959)
Oper - Erschienen bei Myto Historical am 01.01.1971
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Puccini: Tosca
Giacomo Puccini, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra
Klassik - Erschienen bei Nar Classical am 15.01.2024
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Das Rheingold WWV 86A, IRW 40, Act III: "Schwüles Gedünst schwebt in der Luft" (Donner, Froh, Wotan, Fricka, Loge, Die drei Rheintöchter) (Remaster)
Herbert von Karajan, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra
Oper - Erschienen bei Nar Classical am 12.02.2024
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Richard Wagner: Der Ring Des Nibelungen: 1. Das Rheingold
George London, Irene Dalis, Ralph Herbert, Erich Leinsdorf, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, The Metropolitan Opera Chorus
Klassik - Erschienen bei ArnebAudio am 24.10.2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Opera Arias (Kathleen Battle Edition, Vol. 2)
Kathleen Battle, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, James Levine
Klassik - Erschienen bei Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. am 01.01.1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi: Don Carlo
Claudio Abbado, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra
Oper - Erschienen bei Nar Classical am 05.03.2024
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Die Zauberflöte, K. 620 (Sung in English) [Recorded 1956]
Oper - Erschienen bei Walhall Eternity Series am 01.07.2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Live in Tokyo 1988 (Kathleen Battle Edition, Vol. 6)
Kathleen Battle, Plácido Domingo, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, James Levine
Klassik - Erschienen bei Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. am 01.01.1989
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Berg: Wozzeck (Live)
Oper - Erschienen bei Walhall Eternity Series am 01.08.2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Wagner: Das Rheingold (Live)
Oper - Erschienen bei Walhall Eternity Series am 01.08.2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Wagner: Tristan und Isolde (Live)
Oper - Erschienen bei Walhall Eternity Series am 01.02.2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Wagner: Parsifal, WWV 111
Oper - Erschienen bei Walhall Eternity Series am 01.03.2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi: La traviata (Live)
Klassik - Erschienen bei Walhall Eternity Series am 01.08.2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi: Aida (Live)
Oper - Erschienen bei Andromeda am 11.12.2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Richard Wagner: Siegfried
Lauritz Melchior, Friedrich Schorr, Kirsten Flagstad, Arthur Bodanzky, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra
Klassik - Erschienen bei ArnebAudio am 11.10.2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mascagni: Cavalleria rusticana (Mono Version)
Margaret Harshaw, Richard Tucker, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Fausto Cleva
Verschiedenes - Erschienen bei BNF Collection am 01.01.1954
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo