Episode 65: 1966 Gala Farewell

On April 16, 1966, a most momentous occasion occurred at the Metropolitan Opera when the company presented a Gala Farewell to the Old House. The concert portion of the Gala was filled with numerous stars from the recent past as well as the future, including Anna Moffo, Carlotta Ordassy, Arturo Sergi, Charles Anthony, Justino Díaz, William Walker, Robert Merrill, Dorothy Kirsten, Regina Resnik, Thelma Votipka, Marcia Baldwin, Paul Franke, George Cehanovsky, Licia Albanese, Roberta Peters, Delia Rigal, Jan Peerce, Giorgio Tozzi, Régine Crespin, Biserka Cvejic, Renata Tebaldi, Franco Corelli, Sandor Konya, along with conductors Francesco Molinari-Pradelli, Max Rudolf, George Schick, Silvio Varviso, Fausto Cleva and Joseph Rosenstock (Part 2 of 4).
(Recorded 20 July 2012)

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Licia Albanese

Episode 66: 1966 Gala Farewell

Auld Lang Syne

On April 16, 1966, a most momentous occasion occurred at the Metropolitan Opera when the company presented a Gala Farewell to the Old House. The concert portion of the Gala was filled with numerous stars of the recent past as well as the future including Birgit Nilsson, Mary Curtis-Verna, Kurt Baum, Jean Madeira, Mario Sereni, John Macurdy, Norman Scott, Teresa Stratas, Mildred Miller, Frank Guarrera, Mary Ellen Pracht, Joann Grillo, Gladys Kriese, George Shirley, Theodor Uppman, Eleanor Steber, Mignon Dunn, Blanche Thebom, John Alexander, Clifford Harvuot, Montserrat Caballe, Judith Raskin, Rosalind Elias, Zinka Milanov, Richard Tucker, Gabriella Tucci, Nicolai Gedda and Jerome Hines with conductors Joseph Rosenstock, Zubin Mehta, Erich Leinsdorf, Kurt Adler and Georges Pretre (Part 3 of 4).
(Recorded 20 July 2012)

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Episode 67: 1966 Gala Farewell

Maya Plesitskaya

The days following the Metropolitan Opera’s Gala Farewell to the Old House were concerned with the dismantling of the inside of a structure that was Alfred Hubay’s life for 23 years. He remembers the final music heard in the house and the selling of relics from its floors and walls, the embellishments and even its ceiling. For Alfred Hubay, it was a dissolution of a dream (Part 4 of 4).
(Recorded 20 July 2012)

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Alfred Hubay locks the doors on the Metropolitan Opera