Not long after the Met Database was introduced in 2005, we received a mock legal document: employers across the United States were bringing a class action suit for wrongful interference with productivity. “As a result of your actions, opera-loving employees in all fields of endeavor are frittering away their time on their office computers, poring over operatic trivia and arcana and tracing the Met career trajectories of their favorite singers and conductors. This has resulted in countless productive hours being lost…”

There was no way to know that so many people would flock to the Database, though in retrospect it makes perfect sense. In the past, tracking down information had been slow and tedious, and at times extremely annoying. If someone called with a perfectly valid inquiry— how many times did Enrico Caruso and Geraldine Farrar sing together at the Met?—we would go to the performer cards faithfully prepared over the years by the first Archivist, Mrs. John DeWitt Peltz, and try to remember the operas Caruso and Farrar sang together. We would pull out Bohème, go on to Carmen, and so on. Any total was suspect.

Now anyone can do a key word search combining, say, Sutherland and Pavarotti, and instantly get a list of their joint appearances, sorted by date or opera. And every performance has the complete cast.

The Database has grown since its introduction and is updated every weekday. There are a number of special searches: opening nights, general managers, Ring cycles, SIRIUS XM broadcasts, Met Player offerings. As of March 1, 2009, there had been 26,798 Met performances. More than 1,200 of them have reviews attached. There are several thousand photos as well.

Early on, a friend asked, “Do you know how many arguments this is going to kill?” Well, not that many, as it happens. Instead, the debates have become more sophisticated. Because no other opera house in the world has a comparable resource, the Database ensures that the Met is at the center of any discussion of operatic practices.

Our fanciful lawsuit concluded: “www.metoperafamily.org cannot be allowed to continue in its present irresistibly stimulating and informative incarnation.” But in fact, the Database will continue to develop. Thanks to the active participation of users, its accuracy will improve. And our audience will no doubt continue to monitor our work: why are there no photos of the latest Gioconda revival? Why haven’t you entered Joyce DiDonato’s encore from the Met Orchestra concert that happened 24 hours ago? Though we have been praised to the skies, they watch us like hawks. —Robert Tuggle

Robert Tuggle has been in charge of the Met Archives for 28 years.

Click here to access the Database.