When Manhattan's Metropolitan Opera was put on a permanent basis in 1892, the Metropolitan Opera House was bought for $1,425,000 by 35 members of New York's swankest families. From them the Opera Company leased the building to produce its operas in. In payment for this lease the Company allowed its 35 landlords to occupy the 35 first-tier boxes of the Opera House (the "Diamond Horseshoe") at an annual assessment that reached a high last year of $4,500 a box.
Realistically facing changed conditions in wealth, society and musical appreciation, J. P. Morgan last December advised the Metropolitan Opera Company to buy the...
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