This Met Opera Series Is New York’s Best Kept Secret

I was mingling at a dinner party two years ago when the host introduced me to a friend I hadn’t yet met. “How do you know each other?” I asked. “The opera,” she replied. “We go to the Fridays Under 40 parties together.”

This was something I hadn’t heard of, so they went on to explain. As a strategy to attract younger audiences, The Metropolitan Opera started a program that offers discounted tickets to patrons 40 or younger on Friday evenings. And once a month for the entirety of the season (September through June), they host a 90-minute party so people can chat over drinks before the curtain. As someone who had never been to the opera before, I was very intrigued, especially by the prospect of a fab party before the show.

“The Friday Under 40 initiative was created to offer accessible tickets and events to attract a younger audience,” says Melanie Milton, producer of public programming for the Met Opera. “In developing this program, our average audience age has come down significantly. We’ve found the 20s-to-30s crowd to be fashionable, engaged and enthusiastic about incorporating, and continuing, a deep relationship with the extraordinary new and canonical opera the Met offers night after night.”

The following season, I signed up for the mailing list but missed a critical aspect of snagging tickets on a party night: They go fast. Upon finally getting to attend a performance of Rigoletto last month, I was chatting with another party-goer who had been to a few Fridays Under 40 events before. “Sometimes you can call the box office and get yourself on the wait list,” she said. “But it can take multiple tries before they have a cancellation.”

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I didn’t want to miss a second of this Fridays Under 40 party, so we arrived promptly at 6 p.m. The party takes place on the grand tier level, across the way from the Met Opera’s restaurant, which was packed the night of our show. Walking in, we met Michele Rufano, who worked in HR and as the head usher for the Met Opera before she retired. Now she’s “the bouncer for the Under 40s parties for fun.” We chatted for awhile, and she complimented our outfits (me in a velvet lace gown, my husband in a suit), mentioning that the typical crowd doesn’t dress up like the Under 40 crowd does. “People really pull out the stops for this,” she said.

And that was the truth. Although a few people showed up to the party in jeans, most of the crowd was donning cocktail dresses, gowns, sport coats and suits. There was even a tuxedo or two floating around the iconic red-carpeted room, snapping photos in front of the step-and-repeat or positioning themselves on the stairs for a pic before it got too crowded.

The snacks and drinks were flowing, including two signature cocktails that were batched in advance for easy serving. Which must have been a relief to the bartenders because 30 minutes before curtain, the party bar was four-people deep on all sides.

As for the show itself, what a spectacular experience. Rigoletto is a three-act, 140-minute opera with one 30-minute intermission. It’s one of the shorter operas at the Met this season, which was perfect for two beginners. The whole thing is sung in Italian, but the back of each seat is equipped with a screen that shows subtitles, so you can understand everything. While I knew nothing about the Verdi opera going in, we were giddy when one very famous song was sung in Act III. It kind of reminded me of that scene in Boy Meets World when Eric exclaims, “I know this, I know this!”

We loved it so much, we’re going back on June 6 for La Bohème, the day before this Met opera season comes to a close. As for me, I have one year left to enjoy Fridays Under 40. But I encourage anyone who’s young enough to start delighting in it much sooner.