TIME Goes to the Opera

1931: Rosa Ponselle
"One of the few U. S. pageants which survive every changing fashion took place this week in Manhattan. No preliminary folderol or new mise en scene was needed to insure its success. The order of events was essentially unchanged: a tense, gibbering line of folk waiting for admission, a battery of flashlight photographers ready to waylay bejeweled dowagers, a corps of bustling society reporters jotting down the names of people who bowed and scraped to others not really noticed since the pageant of the year before. So, as it has 46 times before, the Metropolitan Opera began a new season.... Soprano Rosa Ponselle was the evening's heroine."
From: Metropolitan's 47th, Nov. 09, 1931

• Lincoln Center's New Design