Question: I had a dear friend and teacher by the name of Dick Bryan (Richard S. Bryan)who peformed with The Metropolitan Opera during, I believe, the early-mid 1960s. By the time that I met him, his performing career had ended, and he was teaching in the Dallas Independent School District (Dallas, TX). He had a profoundly positive impact on my life, and the lives of many others. I would love to find information about his time at "The Met"... are there searchable archives of that sort of information?

Diva: The Diva looked up Richard S. Bryan at the online Met Annals, and found no listing, indicating he was probably a member of either the chorus or the orchestra. Since the company moved to the current opera house at Lincoln Center in 1966, his activities were probably confined to the old theater, at Broadway and 39th Street, which no longer exists. If you are interested in learning more about the company during the sixties, there is at least one book, THE MET, written by Martin Mayer to celebrate the company's centennial in 1983, which may still be on some library shelves.