Wagner diva asks singers to reduce their Met fees

We’ve had sight of a letter sent by an eminent American soprano to a number of her colleagues, asking them to join her in reducing their fees by 12.5 percent in order to help the Metropolitan Opera balance its books.

Hers is an honourable, heartfelt suggestion and one which takes an admirable degree of personal responsibility for the art of opera and one of its leading institutions.

The diva claims that several of her colleagues have already agreed to her suggestion and the tone of her letter indicates that she has bought into the Peter Gelb narrative without benefit of independent assessment.

Admirable as her sense of responsibility may be, it will be seen by colleagues in the orchestra as a rejection of their argument – that the Met’s problems are caused by Gelb’s economic inefficiencies – and a  betrayal of their campaign for a just and sustainable pay deal.

We have withheld the diva’s name in order not to inflame an overheated situation. But we suspect the Met may publish it.