Editing Metropolitan Opera (section)

===Origins===
The Metropolitan Opera Company was founded in 1883 as an alternative to New York's old established [[Academy of Music (New York City)|Academy of Music]] opera house.<ref name="Thiemann Sommer">{{Cite web|url=https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-5000005554|title=New York (opera)|last=Thiemann Sommer|first=Susan|author-link=Susan T. Sommer|date=2002|website=Oxford Music Online|doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.O005554|isbn=978-1-56159-263-0|access-date=August 22, 2020|archive-date=January 26, 2021|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210126114937/https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-5000005554 |url-status=live|url-access= subscription}}</ref><ref name=About /> The subscribers to the academy's limited number of private boxes represented the highest stratum in New York society. By 1880, these "[[old money]]" families were loath to admit New York's newly wealthy industrialists into their long-established social circle. Frustrated with being excluded, the Metropolitan Opera's founding subscribers determined to build a new opera house that would outshine the old Academy in every way.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/04/23/realestate/streetscapes-old-metropolitan-opera-house-why-mimi-no-longer-dies-broadway-39th.html| title=Streetscapes/The old Metropolitan Opera House; Why Mimi No Longer Dies at Broadway and 39th| last=Gray| first=Christopher|author-link=Christopher Gray (architectural historian)|date=April 23, 1995|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=June 19, 2017|archive-date=January 18, 2018| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180118181706/http://www.nytimes.com/1995/04/23/realestate/streetscapes-old-metropolitan-opera-house-why-mimi-no-longer-dies-broadway-39th.html| url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/11/20/magazine/what-s-new-york-the-capital-of-now.html| title=What's New York the Capital of Now?| date=November 20, 1994|newspaper=The New York Times| access-date=| archive-date=January 19, 2018| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180119001257/http://www.nytimes.com/1994/11/20/magazine/what-s-new-york-the-capital-of-now.html| url-status=live|url-access = registration|first = John|last = Tierney}}</ref> A group of 22 men assembled at [[Delmonico's]] restaurant on April 28, 1880. They elected officers and established subscriptions for ownership in the new company.<ref>{{cite news| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1880/04/29/archives/the-new-operahouse-formal-organization-of-the-comapany-the-officers.html |title = The New Opera-House; Formal Organization of the Company – The Officers Elected |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180725215044/https://www.nytimes.com/1880/04/29/archives/the-new-operahouse-formal-organization-of-the-comapany-the-officers.html |archivedate=July 25, 2018 |work = The New York Times|date = April 29, 1880|url-access = subscription|url-status = live}}</ref> The new theater, built at [[Metropolitan Opera House (39th Street)|39th and Broadway]], would include three tiers of private boxes in which the scions of New York's powerful new industrial families could display their wealth and establish their social prominence. The first subscribers included members of the [[Morgan family|Morgan]], [[Roosevelt family|Roosevelt]], and [[Vanderbilt family|Vanderbilt]] families, all of whom had been excluded from the academy. The new Metropolitan Opera House opened on October 22, 1883,<ref name="Met Opera Family-1883" /> and was an immediate success, both socially and artistically. The Academy of Music's opera season folded just three years after the Met opened.