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Commentary
08 Sep 2005
The Met Broadcasts Have a New Sponsor
Metropolitan Opera General Manager Joseph Volpe announced today that Toll Brothers, America’s luxury home builder™, will be the corporate sponsor for the Metropolitan Opera Saturday afternoon radio broadcasts which will celebrate their 75th anniversary this season. The twenty-one radio broadcasts will run from December 17 of this year to May 6, 2006, and will be heard over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network, which comprises over 300 stations in the United States and reaches eleven million people in forty-two countries around the globe. The Annenberg Foundation and the Vincent A. Stabile Foundation will continue to provide generous support for this season’s broadcasts as part of their long-term commitments to the future of this program.
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Toll Brothers Becomes New Corporate Sponsor For The Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcasts
September 08, 2005
Metropolitan Opera General Manager Joseph Volpe announced today that Toll Brothers, America's luxury home builder(TM), will be the corporate sponsor for the Metropolitan Opera Saturday afternoon radio broadcasts which will celebrate their 75th anniversary this season. The twenty-one radio broadcasts will run from December 17 of this year to May 6, 2006, and will be heard over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network, which comprises over 300 stations in the United States and reaches eleven million people in forty-two countries around the globe. The Annenberg Foundation and the Vincent A. Stabile Foundation will continue to provide generous support for this season's broadcasts as part of their long-term commitments to the future of this program.
Mr. Volpe welcomed the new corporate sponsor to the Met broadcasts saying, "I am delighted that Toll Brothers has agreed to support this landmark series, the longest running classical radio program in the history of American broadcasting. I am certain I speak for millions of opera lovers around the world in expressing thanks to Toll Brothers for their generosity."
Robert I. Toll, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Toll Brothers, Inc., said, "We are honored and excited to share the spirit of excellence of The Metropolitan Opera."
Regular radio broadcasts from The Metropolitan Opera began on December 25, 1931, with a broadcast performance of Humperdinck's "Haensel und Gretel." This season's 75th Anniversary celebration will include a special January 14 broadcast honoring the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth with excerpts from historic performances chosen from The Met's vast broadcast archives. In addition, special intermission features throughout the radio season will present great moments from both performances and intermissions of past Met broadcasts.
After the announcement in May 2003 that the broadcasts would lose their corporate sponsor following the 2003-04 season, The Metropolitan Opera launched the "Save the Met Broadcasts Campaign," under the leadership of Beverly Sills, the company's chairman at the time. Since then, thousands of individuals, corporations, and foundations from around the world have contributed to the campaign.
"Thanks to the generosity of these donations, The Met has been able to continue the broadcasts without interruption," said Mr. Volpe. "Our challenge now is to continue to build our Broadcast Fund to guarantee the future of these treasured broadcasts."
[Source: The Metropolitan Opera]