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The Metropolitan Opera Guild today is stronger and more active than ever in pursuing our mission to encourage the appreciation of opera generally, and to support the Metropolitan Opera financially through membership dues. The Guild provides programs and services in many areas designed to further these goals.
The Guild's Education Department provides an innovative network of music and arts education programs to over 1,200 schools and communities worldwide. These programs include rehearsals as well as performances at the Metropolitan Opera, family education programs to introduce children to opera, an adult lecture series, school residency programs, professional development courses for teachers, website development (www.operaed.org), and collaborations with colleges and universities throughout the country.
OPERA NEWS, a monthly magazine published by the Guild, reports on opera around the world. Issues regularly include reviews of commercial recordings and live performances, profiles of artists and articles by eminent writers on the music scene. During the Texaco-Metropolitan Opera Saturday afternoon broadcast season, the magazine also includes an in-depth guide to these broadcasts from the Met. OPERA NEWS is sent to all Guild members as a benefit of membership and an additional 60,000 copies are distributed to direct subscribers and sold on newsstands, making it the world's largest circulation magazine devoted to opera. OPERA NEWS also maintains an active website, OPERA NEWS Online, at www.operanews.com, and produces the Metropolitan Opera's annual Season Book.
The MOG's extensive merchandising program develops and sells opera, dance and music-related items, including original books, recordings and libretti published by the Guild. Products are sold through the Metropolitan Opera Gift Collection catalogue, on the internet (www.metoperashop.org) and in the Opera Shop located in the lobby of the Metropolitan Opera House, which the Guild operates along with The Gallery at Lincoln Center and The Shop at Lincoln Center Theater.
Working with some of the most distinguished names in opera-related travel, the Guild offers, through its Members' Travel Program, custom-designed tours to the opera capitals of the world and other destinations chosen to appeal to the adventurous opera lover.
Each year the Guild holds an Annual Membership Luncheon in honor of an outstanding figure in the opera world,
and organizes other events such as opera-themed film screenings and other benefits. The proceeds from all of
these special events support the Guild's education programs.
The Metropolitan Opera Guild is always seeking ways to be relevant to the opera audience as it exists today. An expanding presence on the World Wide Web that includes all of the Guild's diverse programs is just one indication of this intention to make the support of opera meaningful in today's world and for tomorrow's opera audience. National outreach and support of opera on the local level is another of the Guild's concerns as the operagoing experience has become an enriching part of so many lives in communities everywhere. The appreciation of opera is at an all time high. The Guild's job has just begun.
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