LEIDER, MELCHIOR, OLSZEWSKA, SCHÜTZENDORF, HOFMANN /BODANZKY

TRISTAN UND ISOLDE (extracts 66 mins Act 1 - 25 mins, Act 2 - 8 mins, Act 3 - 35 mins with commentary before act 1 and 2 and intermission feature with Bori) LEIDER, MELCHIOR, OLSZEWSKA, SCHORR, HOFMANN /BODANZKY TRISTAN UND ISOLDE (extracts 25 mins act 1 - 22 mins and act 2 - 3 mins) KAPPEL, LJUNGBERG, BRANZELL, SCHORR, LAUBENTHAL /BODANZKYĭAS RHEINGOLD (extract, final 1m40s of the opera) MOORE, GIGLI, DE LUCA, ROTHIER /HASSELMANS If you have any questions about any of these recordings please email me The performances are complete unless noted.

Where you see 'commentary exists' it is believed that this is the case, though it is missing from the copy I have heard. Where you see the word 'exists' I have not heard the recording personally but have it on strong authority that it does survive. Major holdings of Met broadcasts (aside from the Met archive itself) can be found in the Library of Congress and the New York Public Library. The Met was comparatively late to broadcast in stereo (December 1973). After 1950 all the broadcasts are known to still exist and most survive in excellent sound derived from FM or transcription sources.

Many early broadcasts are not known to survive, and others are incomplete, but there is still a remarkable number that exist in good sound. Sound quality is variable and some of the early off-air recordings are very noisy, but from the 1936-7 season some have remarkably good sound, having been taken from the original NBC transcription discs (rather than from off-air). Some of the best singers in the world performed at the Met and their broadcasts captured many singers in their most famous roles as well as others who recorded very little commercially. This page itemises the surviving broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York between 1931-2005.

Met opera schedule radio broadcasts