This week on the Gilded Gentlemen, I'm taking you to the opera.

With our top hats, opera cloaks, and glasses, we'll be joining the Gilded Age Elite for one of the most exciting evenings filled with drama on and off stage.

The conductor has just appeared on the podium. So do join me.

Hello, I'm Carl Raymond, and welcome to the Gilded Gentleman History Podcast, a show in which we take a close look at America's Gilded Age, France's Grand Belipoc, and the world of late Victorian and Edwardian England.

I've just poured a nice cup of Earl Grey tea, one of my favorites in the afternoon,

and I'm having it in one of my favorite cups, a real 19th century blue and white Canton cup.

I hope you've poured a nice cup of tea, too, or maybe something stronger.

So sit back and let me share with you some of the astonishing moments and inside story of how the Metropolitan Opera and its historic opening night came to be.

On September 27, 2021, today's current Metropolitan Opera had its opening night of the 2021-22 season.

And of course, what an incredible chance for celebration after this long period of darkened theaters and not being able to hear glorious music live for what has seemed so long.

This opening night, this year, was filled

perhaps with even more anticipation. The opera performed was itself a New York premiere by a new

composer at the Met. And as you can imagine, the audience turned out dressed in their best

to return not only to celebrate that historic moment, but also to celebrate a return

to live opera. But today, I'm taking you back to another opening night, in fact, the opening

night when over 130 years ago the history of this great opera house, the largest in the world,

really began. The grand white marble opera house that you largest in the world, really began.

The grand white marble opera house that you see today as the centerpiece of Lincoln Center was not the first incarnation of the Met.

In fact, the first Met, the one that we'll be talking about today,

was located farther downtown just below what is now today's Times Square

and began long before the broadway theater

district came to be that very first opening night october 22nd 1883 was fairly warm for a new

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