The Making of an Opera: Behind the Scenes at the Metropolitan Opera House

From the time the curtain rises to the actors’ final bows, chances are that very few members of the audience have stopped to think about the time and effort put towards a performance, of both actor and stagehand alike. On November 9^th, 2010, I had the opportunity to see Cosí Fan Tutte at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center. All the elements of the performance—from the singers’ enthralling voices and the rapturous music of Mozart, to the artistic beauty of the scenery—combined to make the opera a truly amazing experience. Looking back on that night, I now realize that I was unaware of the small details and people behind the scenes that worked together to make Cosí Fan Tutte a successful opera.

On November 10^th, 2010, the day after my night at the opera, I had the opportunity to tour the Metropolitan Opera House with a group of my classmates. Being able to see the behind-the-scenes workings of the opera house allowed me to discover how intricate the process of putting together such a performance is. The first stop of the tour was the theatre itself, where the scenery for that night’s upcoming opera was being assembled by stagehands. It was strange to see the large stage cluttered with massive pieces of scenery, knowing that only the night before a performance had taken place on the exact same stage. Backstage, the view was even more striking; the stage appeared enormous, even more so than if you were seated in one of the many red velvet seats. Workers milled back and forth on the stage, talking into their headsets, with tool belts hanging from their waists.

After touring the stage, we were led to the to the art department, which I found to be the most fascinating of all the floors we visited. The first of the two rooms we toured housed a variety of props and pieces of scenery, from ornate jewelry, to gilded busts, to life-size replicas of paintings. Beside one of the work benches was a rack of elaborate costumes to be dyed or aged with paint. According to the tour guide, it was important for each member of the art department not only to have artistic skill, but also to be knowledgeable in the time periods these props represented. Time was not only taken to create these props, but also to research their histories. The second room of the art department housed the area where large pieces of set were constructed from wood. Workers, armed with electric saws, stood at large tables, cutting away at enormous sheets of wood that would eventually become the scenery the audience would admire during an opera.

In addition, we had the opportunity to tour the costume and wig department. Racks of various costumes, from elaborate royal capes to simple overcoats, lined the sides of the room. Countless rolls and boxes of fabric were perched on shelves hung from the walls. You could hear the constant humming of a sewing machine, or the hiss of a steam iron. It was amazing to see both finished costumes with ornate details and those in-progress. In the wig room, wigs of all colors and styles lined shelves across the walls. The tour guide commented that for some of the wigs, it was necessary to thread individual hairs into a headpiece one-by-one. To me, it was difficult to believe that such painstaking time and effort could be put into a single aspect of a costume.

My experience touring the Metropolitan Opera House truly opened my eyes to the work and countless hours that go into making an opera as elaborate as Cosí Fan Tutte. When you find yourself sitting opposite the stage in one of those red seats, you never truly grasp a sense of the small details and behind-the-scenes processes that contribute to the performance, whether it be costume and wig design or set assembly. Being able to witness firsthand the hidden aspects of creating an opera gave me a greater appreciation not only for the main actors on stage, but also the people working backstage to make such a large production successful.