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Well, I suppose this will ignite some friendly controversy. The Lincoln Center house is undoubtedly very nice, I have seen but one opera performance at Lincoln Center, I was not impressed. Thus, virtually all of my experience with New York opera was at the old Met located at 39th. street and Broadway. I attended the opera there from age 10 through age 16, and then was off to university.
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The exterior of the building was nothing to brag about, but the key item was the acoustics, there was no garish stream of lyrics scrolling over the stage, and no microphones and over-amplification. The interior was designed, so that you could quite literally hear a pin drop on stage from the highest balcony, up near the ceiling. The photo above was taken circa 1937 (not by me). The house was magnificent!
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Dave Israel
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I have heard about the great acoustics at the Old Met. That must have been something. But I part company from some purists in LIKING to have the English surtitles displayed. I don't speak Italian, German or Russian, and my French, alas, despite three years of it in high school, has withered away to almost nothing. The music alone was reason enough to listen to a Met performance on the radio, but to see it performed and understand the words adds two more wonderful dimensions.
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