On this night in 1966, the brand new Metropolitan Opera House officially opened in Manhattan's Lincoln Center. It was the high-tech, cutting-edge performance venue of its day—the centerpiece of a sparkling, 25 acre performing arts venue which had once been cluttered with decaying tenements (portrayed in the 2021 film West Side Story). The house seated 3,850 audience members and it replaced the earlier (1883) Metropolitan Opera House at Broadway and 39th Street. (That theatre was so under-equipped that stage hands had to pull scenery off-stage and store it on 39th Street.)
The opening night performance was Samuel Barber's Antony and Cleopatra—making its world premiere. Master of spectacle, Franco Zeffirelli, was tasked with creating the opening night extravaganza. And, boy, did he pull-out all the stops! Not only did he design the production (scenery and costumes), he directed it, too. Zeffirelli also wrote the libretto—preserving much of Shakespeare's original dialog from the Renaissance play. Leontyne Price, as Cleopatra, was joined by 400 principals, choristers, dancers (choreographed by Alvin Ailey) and supernumeraries on a stage crammed-full of over-the-top scenery. The new stage's technology provided a bit of drama, too: the turntable broke-down days before the premiere (forcing the massive set changes to be re-conceived) and Miss Price got trapped in a piece of folding, metallic scenery during a rehearsal. The public was not enthusiastic. And the critics were brutal. This production became the poster child for super-inflated, technically problematic, overly-ambitious opera spectacles. After its initial run of eight performances, the production was scrapped and Samuel Barber went back-to-work on the material. (He reissued an improved version nine years later which has been performed since.)
The idea of a new Metropolitan Opera House had been kicking-around for four decades. In fact, in the Twenties, it was planned as the crown jewel of Rockefeller Center (built in the Thirties). It seems that discretionary funds dried-up (thanks to the Stock Market crash of 1929, which launched the Great Depression). Rockefeller Center went-forward without an opera house.
The bookends above, made in the Twenties or Thirties, portray a pair of Egyptian Sphinxes. (Recall that a sphinx once sat on either side of the Nile river—gazing at one another.) They are a handsome reminder of the land of Antony and Cleopatra, made in a time when the Metropolitan Opera struggled to find a new home. Click on the photo above to learn more about these handsome bookends.
Though our Greenwich Village store is now permanently closed, LEO Design is still alive and well! Please visit our on-line store where we continue to sell Handsome Gifts (www.LEOdesignNYC.com).
We also can be found in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, at The Antique Center of Strabane (www.antiquecenterofstrabane.com).
Or call to arrange to visit our Pittsburgh showroom (by private appointment only). 917-446-4248