Gatti / Kahn
As the 20th century dawned, there was a crescendo of operatic creation thanks to a generation of composers following in the footsteps of giants like Verdi and Wagner. Puccini, Strauss, and Massenet were adding new operas to the long traditions of Italy, Germany, and France, and the works of composers from Eastern Europe were being recognized as important additions to the repertory.
Three Met General Managers—Maurice Grau, Heinrich Conried, and Giulio Gatti-Casazza—were responsible for expanding the company’s repertory in the first two decades of the 20th century. Grau oversaw the Met from 1898 to 1903, a period that is often considered a “Golden Age” for the company. From 1903 to 1908, Conried presided over an era of innovation and turbulence that ended with the Met coming under the chairmanship of arts patron Otto Kahn. Giulio Gatti-Casazza, previously the head of La Scala, followed Conried as the company’s new General Manager, and Arturo Toscanini acted as his chief music advisor and conductor until 1915. Gatti-Casazza reigned as General Manager from 1908 to 1935, the longest term in the company’s history. Together with Toscanini, he planned the first world premieres at the Met and instituted an official policy of adding new operas to the repertory every season. Some of these works passed into oblivion, and others have only occasionally been revived. But a considerable number, featured in the following panels, earned a place among the Met’s regular repertory.
Left: Otto Kahn, Chairman of the Metropolitan Opera Company, and Giulio Gatti-Casazza, General Manager, on board an ocean liner in 1925. Gatti-Casazza was hired by Kahn from his previous position as general manager of La Scala. The two men regularly spent time in Europe in the off season, hearing new works and artists.
Right: Giulio Gatti-Casazza, General Manager from 1908–35, backstage at the old Met.
Photo: Carlo Edwards
Left: Colorized photograph of the auditorium of the old Metropolitan Opera House on Broadway between 39th and 40th Streets.
Right: Colorized photograph of the old Metropolitan Opera House on Broadway between 39th and 40th Streets.
Left: Maurice Grau, managing director of the Maurice Grau Opera Company, lessee of the Met from 1898 to 1903. Grau had a long history with the Met, beginning as the company’s Acting Manager under Henry E. Abbey’s lease of the opera house in 1883, then later as partner with Abbey to form the official performing troupe for the Met from 1891 to 1897.
Photo: Aimé Dupont
Center: Heinrich Conried, managing director of the Conried Metropolitan Opera Company, lessee of the Met from 1903 to 1908. An Austrian immigrant, Conried had previously managed German theaters in New York, notably the Irving Place Theatre.
Photo: Falk
Right: Arturo Toscanini, among the most famous conductors in history, served as the principal music advisor to Giulio Gatti-Casazza from 1908 to 1915. Though he did not have the official title, Toscanini was effectively the Met’s Music Director during this period.
Photo: Aimé Dupont
New Opera at the Met: Then and Now
Gatti/Kahn