Geraldine Farrar, George Grantham Bain Collection

The Metropolitan Opera was founded in 1883, with its first opera house built on Broadway and 39th Street by a group of wealthy businessmen who wanted their own theater. In the company’s early years, the management changed course several times, first performing everything in Italian (even Carmen and Lohengrin), then everything in German (even Aida and Faust), before finally settling into a policy of performing most works in their original language, with some notable exceptions. The Metropolitan Opera has always engaged many of the world’s most important artists: Christine Nilsson, Marcella Sembrich, Lilli Lehmann, Nellie Melba, Emma Calvé, De Reszke brothers, Jean and Edouard, Emma Eames, Lillian Nordica, Enrico Caruso, Geraldine Farrar, Rosa Ponselle, Lawrence Tibbett and more. Some of the great conductors have helped shape the Met: Anton Seidl, Arturo Toscanini, Gustav Mahler, Artur Bodanzky, Bruno Walter, George Szell, Fritz Reiner, and Dimitri Mitropoulos.

Geraldine Farrar (1882—1967) was an American soprano, known for her beauty and dramatic talent and the intimate timbre of her voice. Farrar displayed musical talent from early childhood, and although she eventually abandoned the piano she continued her voice lessons. In 1900 she traveled to Berlin, where in 1901 she made a sensational debut at the Royal Opera House in Charles Gounod’s Faust. After three years with the Royal Opera, Farrar spent three years (1904–07) with the Monte Carlo Opera, making her debut there opposite Enrico Caruso in La Bohème.