Metropolitan Opera Association
Details
WebSite
Location
NY, NY
Points
0
Level
0
About Me
A Brief History of the Guild
In 1935, in the midst of the Great Depression, with the Metropolitan Opera in desperate financial straits and about to close its doors forever, Eleanor Robson (Mrs. August) Belmont proposed to her fellow Metropolitan Opera board members the formation of a "guild" - an association of "opera-minded men and women" - to support America's national opera company and help insure its survival. Through pleas on the radio and curtain-call speeches by Mrs. Belmont, soprano Lucrezia Bori and others, the Guild signed on 2,239 people during its first year, their gifts and membership dues enabling the Guild to give the Met $5,000 in 1936 for a new cyclorama, which was first demonstrated in front of an audience of Guild members. "Small gifts from large numbers," Mrs. Belmont wrote, underlining the words "Democratization of the opera had begun.
Central to Mrs. Belmont's vision for the new MOG was education - for both children and adults. Realizing the need to build audiences for the future and knowing that children, if exposed to opera at an early age would be hooked for life, she arranged for school children to attend special student performances in the opera house. Having found her own appreciation of opera deepened by attending rehearsals, Mrs. Belmont began a program allowing Guild members to enjoy that same experience. Another of her innovations was a series of Lecture/Teas and special luncheons, at which Guild members could enjoy the lighter, more personal side of the Met's artists. And to keep Guild members informed of all these activities and Met performances and radio broadcasts on a timely basis, and to make them feel a part of the Met family, in 1936 she began publishing OPERA NEWS, which has become the most widely read, most respected opera magazine in the world today, with a circulation exceeding 100,000.
As opera's popularity has grown, the Guild's programs have expanded into the areas of travel, merchandise sales and book and CD publishing in pursuit of its original mission to inform the opera audience and to expand appreciation of this glorious art form. More than sixty-five years after its founding, the Metropolitan Opera Guild, in continuing to pursue Mrs. Belmont's vision, has become the model for many similar arts-support organizations around the world.
We invite you to explore this website and learn in more detail how membership in the Metropolitan Opera Guild can benefit you and how you can support the Metropolitan Opera, as well as enrich your own passion for opera.
In 1935, in the midst of the Great Depression, with the Metropolitan Opera in desperate financial straits and about to close its doors forever, Eleanor Robson (Mrs. August) Belmont proposed to her fellow Metropolitan Opera board members the formation of a "guild" - an association of "opera-minded men and women" - to support America's national opera company and help insure its survival. Through pleas on the radio and curtain-call speeches by Mrs. Belmont, soprano Lucrezia Bori and others, the Guild signed on 2,239 people during its first year, their gifts and membership dues enabling the Guild to give the Met $5,000 in 1936 for a new cyclorama, which was first demonstrated in front of an audience of Guild members. "Small gifts from large numbers," Mrs. Belmont wrote, underlining the words "Democratization of the opera had begun.
Central to Mrs. Belmont's vision for the new MOG was education - for both children and adults. Realizing the need to build audiences for the future and knowing that children, if exposed to opera at an early age would be hooked for life, she arranged for school children to attend special student performances in the opera house. Having found her own appreciation of opera deepened by attending rehearsals, Mrs. Belmont began a program allowing Guild members to enjoy that same experience. Another of her innovations was a series of Lecture/Teas and special luncheons, at which Guild members could enjoy the lighter, more personal side of the Met's artists. And to keep Guild members informed of all these activities and Met performances and radio broadcasts on a timely basis, and to make them feel a part of the Met family, in 1936 she began publishing OPERA NEWS, which has become the most widely read, most respected opera magazine in the world today, with a circulation exceeding 100,000.
As opera's popularity has grown, the Guild's programs have expanded into the areas of travel, merchandise sales and book and CD publishing in pursuit of its original mission to inform the opera audience and to expand appreciation of this glorious art form. More than sixty-five years after its founding, the Metropolitan Opera Guild, in continuing to pursue Mrs. Belmont's vision, has become the model for many similar arts-support organizations around the world.
We invite you to explore this website and learn in more detail how membership in the Metropolitan Opera Guild can benefit you and how you can support the Metropolitan Opera, as well as enrich your own passion for opera.
Categories
