Editing Metropolitan Opera (section)

===Giulio Gatti-Casazza===
[[File:Gatti Casazza.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Giulio Gatti-Casazza]]]]

Conried was followed by [[Giulio Gatti-Casazza]], who held a 27-year tenure from 1908 to 1935. Gatti-Casazza had been lured by the Met from a celebrated tenure as director of Milan's [[La Scala|La Scala Opera House]]. His model planning, authoritative organizational skills and brilliant casts raised the Metropolitan Opera to a prolonged era of artistic innovation and musical excellence. He brought with him the fiery and brilliant conductor [[Arturo Toscanini]], the music director from his seasons at La Scala.

[[File:Metropolitan Opera Schedule March 22-29, 1935.jpg|thumb|left|Gatti-Casazza's last week at the Met (March 22–29, 1935)]]
Many of the most noted singers of the era appeared at the Met under Gatti-Casazza's leadership, including sopranos [[Rosa Ponselle]], [[Elisabeth Rethberg]], [[Maria Jeritza]], [[Emmy Destinn]], [[Frances Alda]], [[Frida Leider]], [[Amelita Galli-Curci]], [[Bernice de Pasquali]], and [[Lily Pons]]; tenors [[Jacques Urlus]], [[Giovanni Martinelli]], [[Beniamino Gigli]], [[Giacomo Lauri-Volpi]], and [[Lauritz Melchior]]; baritones [[Titta Ruffo]], [[Giuseppe De Luca]], [[Pasquale Amato]], and [[Lawrence Tibbett]]; and basses [[Friedrich Schorr]], [[Feodor Chaliapin]], Jose Mardones, [[Tancredi Pasero]] and [[Ezio Pinza]]—among many others.

Toscanini served as the Met's principal conductor (but with no official title) from 1908 to 1915, leading the company in performances of Verdi, Wagner and others that set standards for the company for decades to come. The Viennese composer [[Gustav Mahler]] also was a Met conductor during Gatti-Casazza's first two seasons and in later years conductors [[Tullio Serafin]] and [[Artur Bodanzky]] led the company in the Italian and German repertories respectively.

[[File:Artur Bodanzky at the Metropolitan Opera in 1915.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Artur Bodanzky]] at the Metropolitan Opera in 1915]]

Following Toscanini's departure, Gatti-Casazza successfully guided the company through the years of [[World War I]] into another decade of premieres, new productions and popular success in the 1920s. The 1930s, however, brought new financial and organizational challenges for the company. In 1931, [[Otto Hermann Kahn|Otto Kahn]], the noted financier, resigned as head of the Met's board of directors and president of the Metropolitan Opera Company. He had been responsible for engaging Gatti-Casazza and had held the position of president since the beginning of Gatti-Casazza's term as manager. The new chair, prominent lawyer [[Paul Drennan Cravath|Paul Cravath]], had served as the board's legal counsel.<ref name="kahnresigns">{{cite news| title=Kahn Resigns Posts As Opera Executive: Paul D. Cravath Succeeds Him| url-access=subscription| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1931/10/27/archives/kahn-resigns-posts-as-opera-executive-paul-d-cravath-succeeds-him.html| work=The New York Times| date=October 27, 1931| page=27| access-date=June 11, 2018| archive-date=June 12, 2018| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612235837/https://www.nytimes.com/1931/10/27/archives/kahn-resigns-posts-as-opera-executive-paul-d-cravath-succeeds-him.html| url-status=live}}</ref> Retaining Gatti-Casazza as manager, Cravath focused his attention on managing the business affairs of the company.<ref name="cravathstarts">{{cite news| title=Cravath Hails Day of New Opera Ideal| work=The New York Times| date=October 29, 1931| page=25| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1931/10/29/archives/cravath-hails-day-of-new-opera-ideal-metropolitan-executive-looks.html| url-access=subscription| access-date=June 11, 2018| archive-date=June 12, 2018| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612222730/https://www.nytimes.com/1931/10/29/archives/cravath-hails-day-of-new-opera-ideal-metropolitan-executive-looks.html| url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1926, as part of the [[construction of Rockefeller Center]], a plan was floated to move the opera from the building on 39th Street to the new [[Rockefeller Center]].<ref>{{cite book |last= Balfour |first=Alan|title=Rockefeller Center: Architecture as Theater|url=https://archive.org/details/rockefellercente0000balf|url-access=registration|publisher=McGraw-Hill, Inc.|location=New York, NY |year= 1978|isbn=978-0-07003-480-8|page=[https://archive.org/details/rockefellercente0000balf/page/3 3]}}</ref> The plan was dropped in 1929 when it became apparent that it would produce no savings, and because the Met did not have enough money to move to a new opera house.<ref name="NYTimes-Opera-Site-Dropped-1929">{{Cite news|archive-date = December 14, 2021|archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20211214162335/https://www.nytimes.com/1929/12/06/archives/rockefeller-site-for-opera-dropped-joint-announcement-says-plan-is.html|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1929/12/06/94215747.pdf |title=Rockefeller Site For Opera Dropped|date=December 6, 1929|work=The New York Times|url-access=subscription |access-date=}}</ref> It soon became apparent that the [[Wall Street Crash of 1929]] and subsequent [[Great Depression|depression]] had resulted in a dangerously large deficit in the company's accounts. Between 1929 and 1931 ticket sales remained robust, but subsidies from the Met's wealthy supporters had significantly declined.<ref name="deficit">{{cite news| title=Future of the Opera Comes Up Tomorrow| work=The New York Times| date=March 22, 1932| page=23| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1932/03/22/archives/future-of-the-opera-comes-up-tomorrow-cravath-returns-to-preside-at.html | url-access=subscription| access-date=June 11, 2018| archive-date=June 12, 2018| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612203733/https://www.nytimes.com/1932/03/22/archives/future-of-the-opera-comes-up-tomorrow-cravath-returns-to-preside-at.html| url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-07682, Otto H. Kahn.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Otto Hermann Kahn]] in Berlin, 1931]]

Soon after his appointment, Cravath obtained new revenue through a contract with the [[National Broadcasting Company]] for weekly radio broadcasts of Met performances.<ref name="nbc">{{cite news| title=Captured for the Multitudes: Broadcasting Reveals Opera Is Not "High Hat"—Those Who Predicted Its "Death" May Find Radio a Tonic as Have Other Arts| work=The New York Times| date=January 10, 1932| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1932/01/10/archives/captured-for-the-multitudes-broadcasting-reveals-opera-is-not.html| first=Orrin K.| last=Dunlap| page=XX7| url-access=subscription| access-date=June 11, 2018| archive-date=June 12, 2018| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612212354/https://www.nytimes.com/1932/01/10/archives/captured-for-the-multitudes-broadcasting-reveals-opera-is-not.html| url-status=live}}</ref> The first national broadcast took place December 25, 1931, when ''[[Hansel and Gretel (opera)|Hansel and Gretel]]'' was aired.{{efn|1=See more on the national broadcasts in the ''{{section link||Broadcast radio}}'' section.}}<ref name="molto">{{cite book|first=Johanna|last=Fiedler|author-link=Johanna Fiedler|title=Molto Agitato: The Mayhem Behind the Music at the Metropolitan Opera|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v9gtOoMw8RAC&pg=PT39|date=September 9, 2003|publisher=Knopf Doubleday|isbn=978-1-4000-7589-8|pages=39–41|access-date=December 26, 2015|archive-date=January 5, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160105052816/https://books.google.com/books?id=v9gtOoMw8RAC&pg=PT39|url-status=live}}</ref> With Gatti's support, Cravath also obtained a ten percent reduction in the pay of all salaried employees beginning with the opera season of 1931/32. Cravath also engineered a reorganization of the management company by which it was transformed from a corporation, in which all participants were stockholders, to an association, whose members need not have a financial interest in operations. Apart from this change, the new Metropolitan Opera Association was virtually identical to the old Metropolitan Opera Company. It was hoped the association would be able to save money as it renegotiated contracts which the company had made.<ref>{{cite news| title=Control of Opera to be Reorganized: New Metropolitan Company Is Planned, to Give Productions Under New Contracts| work=The New York Times| date=March 4, 1932| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1932/03/04/archives/control-of-opera-to-be-reorganized-new-metropolitan-company-is.html| page=1| url-access=subscription| access-date=June 11, 2018| archive-date=June 12, 2018| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612155157/https://www.nytimes.com/1932/03/04/archives/control-of-opera-to-be-reorganized-new-metropolitan-company-is.html| url-status=live}}</ref>

During this period there was no change in the organization of the Metropolitan Real Estate Opera Company which owned the [[Metropolitan Opera House (39th St)|opera house]]. It remained in the hands of the society families who owned its stock, yet the subsidies that the house and its owners had given the producing company fell off. In March 1932, Cravath found that income resulting from the broadcasts and savings from both salary cuts and reorganization were not sufficient to cover the company's deficits. Representatives of the opera house, the producing company, and the artists formed a committee for fundraising among the public at large. Mainly though appeals made to radio audiences during the weekly broadcasts, the committee was able to obtain enough money to assure continuation of opera for the 1933–34 season.<ref name="appeal">{{cite news| title=Opera Denies Plan to Quit Old Home; Withdrawal of Boxholders' Support Feared in Move to Rockefeller Center| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1933/02/11/archives/opera-denies-plan-to-quit-old-home-withdrawal-of-boxholders-support.html| work=The New York Times| date=February 11, 1933| page=11| url-access=subscription| access-date=June 11, 2018| archive-date=June 12, 2018| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612204343/https://www.nytimes.com/1933/02/11/archives/opera-denies-plan-to-quit-old-home-withdrawal-of-boxholders-support.html| url-status=live}}</ref> Called the committee to Save Metropolitan Opera, the group was headed by the well-loved leading soprano, [[Lucrezia Bori]]. Bori not only led the committee, but also personally carried out much of its work and within a few months her fundraising efforts produced the $300,000 that were needed for the coming season.<ref name="success">{{cite news| title=Opera Board Lays Plans for Future| work=The New York Times| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1933/12/07/archives/opera-board-lays-plans-for-future-new-executive-group-formed-at.html| date=December 7, 1933| page=27| access-date=January 17, 2018| url-access=subscription| archive-date=February 23, 2018| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180223051731/https://www.nytimes.com/1933/12/07/archives/opera-board-lays-plans-for-future-new-executive-group-formed-at.html| url-status=live}}</ref>