On this day in 1982 conductor Bernard Haitink made his Metropolitan Opera debut conducting Fidelio. (Six performances and that was all.) 

Harriett Johnson in the New York Post:

In his Metropolitan Opera debut the other night, Bernard Haitnik’s interpretation left no doubt about his defiant, stirring plea for the composer’s convictions. Haitink, music director and permanent conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra in his native Amsterdam, is now, at 53-years-old, seasoned in opera and he brought to the great Beethoven score a forthright, dynamic conception that was sometimes driven. It was also sometimes overwhelmed by volume as in the beginning of Act I and sometimes on the dry side as in the interpolated Overture to “Leonore” No. 3 that by tradition is played during the scene change in Act II from dungeon to courtyard.

But overall the listener was aware that a superior maestro was putting his stamp on the music and there was much to praise in the solo ensembles and the work of the chorus which had been superbly prepared by the Met’s chorus master David Stivender. When the prisoners are released in Act I from their dark prison for a short time to see the light in the courtyard, their singing the chorus in which they beg God to set them free was a highlight of the evening.