When friends and colleagues gathered on September 14 for the dedication of Lenore Rosenberg’s tribute panel in the National Opera Center’s Ovation Hall, they honored an industry veteran who devoted more than 30 years to the Metropolitan Opera, most recently as artistic administrator and before that, as head of the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program.

“Some of my ideas are so old-fashioned they now seem radical,” Rosenberg said at the ceremony, summing up her philosophy of operatic performance. “I believe people should sing in tune and without strain. I believe there are appropriate musical styles for each era and language, and that five centuries of music shouldn’t all sound homogenized. I believe that in opera, the singing is the acting, and that running around, climbing ladders, roller-skating and taking off your clothes are blocking, not acting.” She now relishes the prospect of retirement: “I will be home with my feet up, listening to my Montserrat Caballé recordings, and wishing the best for you, and this wonderful, ridiculous, expensive, aggravating art form called opera. What would we do without it?”

The tribute panel was made possible by a fundraising campaign that will benefit the Opera Center.