

DO NOT use your phone to send texts or read social media posts.Instead, silently show the performer you’re enjoying their singing, by lighting her or him up from your seat with a laser pointer. Cheering loudly outside the confines of an acknowledged applause break is disruptive and distracting.An improperly-secured opera hat which suddenly springs back into shape produces a loud “THOPPP!” sound that will interrupt the opera and mark you as some sort of turbo-rube. Double-check your collapsible top hat to make absolutely sure you have stowed it properly under your seat.As a concession to the dignity and feelings of the coloratura singing the brutally difficult role of the Queen of the Night, before the curtain rises on Mozart’s The Magic Flute you should elect one (and only one) “captain” of your seating level permitted to shout “WOMP-wommmmp!” any time she blows one of the top F6 notes of her big Act II rage aria, “Der Hölle Rache.”.Depending on the day, you can take a tour of the Metropolitan Opera House shop at the Met Store look for the shallow depression in the concrete of the Lincoln Center plaza where the body of missing Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa is rumored to have been entombed or go backstage and help the lead performers and chorus members’ parents finish painting the sets and sewing the costumes for your performance. If you find yourself with no other plans on the morning or afternoon before the opera, arrive at Lincoln Center as early as possible for a more extensive Met experience.This and other “wacky” audience participation stunts have kept midnight performances of this opera running continually since 1852.

If you’ll be seeing Verdi’s La Traviata, be sure to prepare slices of toasted bread to throw at the stage during Act I, when Gastone asks Baron Douphol to offer a toast to Violetta and the revelers.Your experience in an obstructed view seat may be affected by one or more of the following: a structural fixture sightlines wherein the proscenium obscures part of the stage sitting immediately behind the giant foam head of the season corporate sponsor’s costumed mascot seat is technically a bathroom stall inside the Grand Tier-level restroom lead soprano doesn’t like her profile from that angle and insists that those seated in this section keep one hand over their downstage-dominant eye at all times. Some of the best bargains can be had with “Obstructed View” seats. Tickets are available to suit any budget.Here are some tips for those about to attend their first opera at the Met. The Metropolitan Opera’s 2018-2019 season opens on Monday, September 24 with mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča and tenor Roberto Alagna in a brand-new staging of Saint-Saëns’s biblical epic Samson et Dalila.įar from being exclusionary (or even expensive), an outing to the Metropolitan Opera is among the most thrilling and exhilarating attractions available to any New York City visitor.
