The respected Maurice Strakosch company brought Wagner's Der fliegende Hollander there in 1876, and a German Grand Opera Co. OPERA HOUSE in 1875, opera had a suitably grand venue in Cleveland. In an epochal 3 weeks at the ACADEMY OF MUSIC in January and April 1864, New York impresario Jacob Grau produced 13 different operas, introducing Clevelanders to Don Giovanni, Martha, Faust, Un ballo in maschera, La traviata, and Giacomo Meyerbeer's Robert le diable and Dinorah. Il trovatore, The Barber of Seville, Der Freischutz, and Ernani first arrived in 1859. La sonnambula was a perennial early import, along with Donizetti's Lucia and The Daughter of the Regiment. Through most of its history, Cleveland has relied upon outside producers for its initial exposure to the operatic canon. Highly successful, the production was revived on at least 2 other occasions. Home-grown opera is generally dated from a performance of Friedrich von Flotow's Alessandro Stradella by the Cleveland Gesangverein at the Bank St. The visitors also brought Bellini's La sonnambula and Norma. at the Atheneum in Gaetano Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor. Real opera definitely arrived in Cleveland on 25 July 1854, with the appearance of Luigi Arditi's Italian Opera Co. Locally, the Philharmonic Society mounted Maeder's The Peri at National Hall on 19 April 1852, but neither composer nor work has survived in standard operatic reference works. Actually, they performed only selections from Vincenzo Bellini's La sonnambula, 'in full costume' as advertised, but without scenery. is generally credited with bringing the city its first opera on in Watson's Hall. Often regarded as the most esoteric of the arts, opera didn't arrive fully garbed in Cleveland for more than half a century.

Metropolitan opera house seating chart