How to view 26,000 operas at once
Last year Joseph Volpe, the general manager of the Metropolitan Opera, went to Robert Tuggle, the Met’s archivist, with a simple question. In how many seasons throughout its history, Mr. Volpe wanted to know, had the Met presented a production of Puccini’s “Turandot”?
At one time, Mr. Volpe’s question would have sent Mr. Tuggle, who has been the Met’s director of archives since 1981, riffling through the record books and flipping through rows of index cards in the archive, a windowless office in a subbasement of the opera house.
But these days, finding the answer is easy. All Mr. Tuggle needs to do is to open the Met’s new database on his desktop computer. Moreover, since it was unveiled this spring, the database has been available, free, to anyone who logs onto the Met’s Web site.
By any measure, the Met’s database is exceptionally comprehensive. But what’s more, it is sheer fun to explore.
Want to know how many times, say, Birgit Nilsson sang at the Met? Easy. Select the Browse function, type in “Nilsson, Birgit,” click on Met Careers, and in a blip the answer arrives: 222. Click on that number, and a complete list of every Nilsson performance at the Met appears, in chronological order, including complete casts, conductors, directors and other pertinent information. And you can just as easily refine your search and discover complete cast lists for all the performances Ms. Nilsson sang with, say, Franco Corelli (45, including tours and a few galas).
Want to know more? Here’s a question only opera mavens would think of: how many sopranos made their Met debuts singing the role of Wagner’s Sieglinde? The answer, easily available on the database, is 13, starting with Olive Fremstad in 1903 and ending (for now) with Gwyneth Jones in 1972.
For countless opera buffs, the database, which includes entries on all performances since the Met’s opening in 1883, has already become more than a repository of information. You can relive the career of a favorite singer, like Renata Tebaldi, as well as the era in which she sang, by going through the complete list of her 269 performances, starting with her Met debut in 1955 as Desdemona in Verdi’s “Otello.”
And check out the cast that night. Mario Del Monaco as Otello, Leonard Warren as Iago, and, taking the supporting role of Roderigo, a young tenor named James McCracken. McCracken later became a famous interpreter of the title role, singing it in a string of performances with Tebaldi in 1964, as well as on the night of her Met farewell in 1973, with the young James Levine conducting.
The database’s Repertory Report option lists, among other things, all the operas ever performed at the Met, starting with the most frequently presented work: “La Bohème” holds the record at 1,165 performances. Check the Performers Report, and you’ll find that during a career of 51 years so far, the tenor Charles Anthony has accumulated the most performances in Met history, 2,896, the majority in smaller supporting roles, though Mr. Levine, in third place at 2,237, is catching up.
Opera fans will be pleased to know that Mr. Tuggle and his staff keep adding information to the database. Increasingly, entries on individual performances include reviews from critics, pertinent related documents and photographs (the production photos from the 1910 world premiere of Puccini’s “Fanciulla del West,” starring Enrico Caruso and Emmy Destinn, for example).
It’s somehow fitting that the Met’s sophisticated, user-friendly database has finally opened up that sunless archive. It is a cramped but endearing office, with an adjacent humidity-controlled storeroom that houses rare documents and legendary costumes, like the princely finery Jussi Bjoerling wore in the landmark 1950 production of Verdi’s “Don Carlo.”
