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| | Today in History: October 22 |
 | | The Metropolitan Opera House, located on Broadway at 39th Street in New York City, opened on October 22, 1883, with a performance of Charles Gounod's Faust, the tale of a German sorcerer who sold his soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge, power, youth, and love. |
 | | The opera, although composed in French and based on Goethe's German poem, was sung on this occasion in Italian, the favored language of the Met's early management. |
 | | You'd get down to the Opera House just before eight, it wasn't stylish to be late those days; and when you got there, you'd escort your girl as far as the ladies' room, and leave her there, and then you'd join the other lads in the gent's room, and put on your dancing pumps. |
| memory.loc.gov /ammem/today/oct22.html (990 words) |
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