Metropolitan Opera House (New York City, New York)

5-story modernist opera house completed in 1966. Designed by Wallace K. Harrison, replacing the original 1883 Metropolitan Opera House at Broadway and 39th Street. With a seating capacity of approximately 3,800, the house is the largest repertory opera house in the world. Home to the Metropolitan Opera Company, the facility also hosts the American Ballet Theatre in the summer months.

As chief architect again for the development of Lincoln Center, Harrison was chosen to design the new opera house, to be built as the centerpiece of the new performing arts complex. After a long process of redesigns, revisions and opposing interests (provided by the Met wanting a more traditional design for its home, and the conflicting wishes of the architects of the other Lincoln Center venues), construction of Harrison's forty-third design of the Metropolitan Opera House began in the winter of 1963, the last of the three major Lincoln Center venues to be completed.

The Metropolitan Opera Association of New York City, founded in April 1880, is a major presenter of all types of opera including Grand Opera. The Metropolitan is America's largest classical music organization, and annually presents some 240 opera performances. The Met is one of the twelve resident organizations at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

Situated at the western end of Lincoln Center Plaza, the Metropolitan Opera House faces Columbus Avenue and Broadway and forms an axis with Philip Johnson's David Koch Theater (formerly the New York State Theater) and David Geffen Hall (formerly Avery Fisher Hall), designed by Max Abramovitz, with the plaza's fountain at the center. Although west-east roads do not run through Lincoln Center itself, the Metropolitan Opera House is parallel to the block from West 63rd Street to West 64th Street. The rear of the House meets Amsterdam Avenue, and extends to the plaza entrance. The building is clad in white travertine and the east facade is graced with its distinctive series of five concrete arches and large glass and bronze facade, towering 96 feet above the plaza. On the north, south and west sides of the building, hundreds of vertical fins of travertine running the full height of the structure give the impression that the facade is an uninterrupted mass of travertine when viewed from certain angles. There are loading docks at the rear, fronting Amsterdam Avenue.

On display in the lobby, and visible to the outside plaza, are two murals created for the space by Marc Chagall. The multi-story lobby is dominated by a concrete and terrazzo cantilevered stairway that connects the main level with the lower level lounges and upper floors. The centerpiece of the lobby is an array of eleven Swarovski crystal chandeliers conceived by Tad Lbeski of Harrison & Abramovitz specifically for the lobby and auditorium then developed further and fabricated by Hans Harald Rath of J. & L. Lobmeyr of Vienna, resembling constellations with sparkly moons and satellites spraying out in all directions. Those were given to the Met by the Austrian government upon its opening in 1966. The auditorium contains 21 matching chandeliers, the largest of which measures 18 ft. in diameter. The lobby also contains sculptures by Aristide Maillol and Wilhelm Lehmbruck as well as portraits of notable performers and members of the Met company.

The interior balcony of the auditorium was used as a filming location for S1E8 of the HBO reboot of "Gossip Girl".

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 operatheatreinteresting place1966_constructionmovie / film / TV locationModern (architecture)