The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra is the resident orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, founded alongside the company in 1883 as an alternative to the earlier Academy of Music; the company moved to its current Lincoln Center home in 1966. Principal conductors and music directors across its history have included Arturo Toscanini (1908–1915), with Gustav Mahler and Bruno Walter among the many eminent conductors who have led it, and James Levine, who served as music director from 1976 to 2016 and is widely credited with elevating the orchestra to symphonic-caliber standards; Yannick Nézet-Séguin has been music director since 2018. The orchestra performs roughly 18 different operas each season in rotating repertory, ranging from Baroque works to contemporary premieres, from the 3,732-seat Lincoln Center house.

Regarded as one of the finest opera orchestras in the world, it is central to the Metropolitan Opera’s identity as the largest classical music performing organization in North America, reaching global audiences through live broadcasts and cinema transmissions.

Sources:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Opera_Orchestra