They dashed across the plaza late Saturday afternoon in high slits and tuxedo jackets, rushing to make the early curtain for the gala at the Metropolitan Opera bidding farewell to general manager Joseph Volpe.

In the moonlight at 2 a.m. – when they headed home into the silent night – the arias, the toasts, the gowns, and the jewels had formed one of the Met’s most memorable evenings, as well as its most successful, with $10 million raised.

“Joe has made the Met and New York City better, stronger, and more beautiful,” Mayor Giuliani told 900 guests at the post-concert supper as they finished off their first course of wild Alaskan salmon and grilled asparagus. Filet of beef with spring vegetables came next, followed by grilled apricots with warm molten chocolate cake.

Referring to notes he’d written in pencil on a piece of paper that fit in his palm, he praised the monitors that provide English translations of the operas. They were installed in 1995, five years after Mr. Volpe became general manager. “People can actually understand the words – and every time I hear them laugh, I think of you,” Mr. Giuliani said.

And he noted Mr. Volpe’s wisdom in turning dress rehearsal on September 24, 2001, into a public event by setting up screens on the plaza so New Yorkers could watch for free just two weeks after the tragedies of September 11.

“When I walked out and saw thousands of people, I realized we were going to get through this,” Mr. Giuliani said. The receipts from inside the opera house that evening brought $2 million to the Twin Towers Fund.

The chairwoman of the opera, Susan Morris, presented Mr. Volpe with a caricature depicting him as an organ grinder. The singer Placido Domingo led the crowd in a rendition of “For He’s A Jolly Good Fellow.”

Mr. Domingo joked about his 38-year tenure at the Met, just four years shy of Mr. Volpe’s. “I have the dubious of honor of being the artist that has accumulated the most youth,” he said. He also is the artist who perhaps has done the most waiting for the elevator from the C level to the stage. “It adds up to about seven days of my life,” he said. And he’s up for more. “I don’t know, maybe I have another three, four, maybe five years with the company,” Mr. Domingo said.

Mr. Volpe watched the concert with his wife, Jean, and daughter, Anna, then ate dinner in between two of New York’s most elegant women, the singer Renee Fleming and the patron Mercedes Bass, who with her husband, Sid, recently gave $25 million to the Met, and who planned the Italianate decor of the party.

Mr. Volpe said the night was “the opposite” of bittersweet, perhaps because he can’t conceive of actually leaving. “I won’t be here, but I assure you that the Met blood will still flow in my veins and my heart,” he said.

In fact, he showed that his relentless commitment to the Met will not end. “I will not ask you to sustain your level of support,” Mr. Volpe said. “I will urge you to increase it.”

Mr. Volpe also delivered “bravissimos” to the singers, musicians, ballet dancers, stage managers, crews, and, after a dramatic pause, to James Levine, the Met’s artistic director.

At that, the dinner guests delivered their rowdiest applause. It’s been nearly three months since the fall that forced Mr. Levine to cancel his Met engagements this spring, and Saturday night he looked healthy but for an arm sling. The Boston Symphony Orchestra’s general manager, Marc Volpe (no relation to Joseph), said that Mr. Levine has been eating carrots and celery and has so far lost 38 pounds. He plans to be back at Tanglewood in July.

So the show goes on. Mr. Volple’s successor, Peter Gelb, who assumes his post August 1, said he’s looking forward to his first opening night, which will feature Anthony Minghella’s production of Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly.”

agordon@nysun.com