One of the world's great opera houses, New York's Metropolitan Opera carries with it a set of traditions as well established as those of the famed European houses, nurtured by a strong training apparatus. Even with that sense of tradition, the Met has been in the forefront of bringing opera out of the opera house and onto the radio, into movie theaters, and onto Internet screens, in an ongoing effort to cultivate new audiences. The Met's first season was offered in 1883 and 1884, with Auguste Vianesi as music director. Conductors have included Gustav Mahler, Arturo Toscanini, and most prominently, James Levine, who was almost the face of the orchestra from 1976 until 2016. Yannick Nézet-Séguin, became the music director in 2018. In the 2021-2022 season, the Metropolitan Opera, for the first time, presented an opera by an African American composer, Terence Blanchard; Fire Shut Up in My Bones.