Peter Gelb gives thanks for the Met’s Carmen
OperaVogue was invited to the after-party:
After a meal of Beef Wellington and lots of Champagne, (500) guests gathered on the dance floor to hear from the Met Opera’s general manager Peter Gelb. ‘For those wondering how the Met can support such a lavish and massive production, these economically challenging times, we have several very generous donors who are dedicated to keeping opera alive,’ he announced to the room.
Gelb had many thanks to give to arts patron Adrienne Arsht…. the evening raised $1.8 million.
“such a lavish … production”
Lavish? Was he watching the same opera?
It was cut-off jeans, busted pickup trucks, and a chainlink fence.
Everything you can pick up at the Home Depot parking lot for $100, including a couple of migrant workers to mount all the stuff on stage at the Met, and then to bus the tables at the Beef Wellington gala afterwards.
Who eats Beef Wellington since the 1950s? Was there a jello salad too?
Led by Gelb Met seems to be non-stop degrading in quality of both leadership and production. His latest Carmen is an evidence of this observation. After politically motivated and widely condemned by public decisions with removal of Anna Netrebko and bringing Ludmila Monastyrskaya I wonder if his next achievement might be something DEI-based. Is Board of Directors taking notes about the strategic directions of the Met as a major cultural public institution?
Getting rid of the way overrated trebs is one of the few things Yellow Pete got right (Gelb is yellow in German; Don’t mention the war!)
Everything zhey do is DIE-based.
See what I did there?
Recently zhey had a photo shoot for “latinx-identifying” crew members.
Real Babylon Bee material.
The Met’s Board has been basking in its decision to appoint Gelb for nearly 2 decades. It is a bunch of incompetents who believe he is the good Lord’s answer to opera in the 21st century. While Gelb gets the brickbats it is the Chairman and the Board who should all be recognized as the real the opera destroyers.
Also, trebs doesn’t even fill the auditorium. I remember The Tales of Hoffmann, which was Yellow Pete full, i.e. not full at all. Trebs was there, although the best thing was Jospeh Calleja.
Of course, this had also something to do with the horrible staging; the old Otto Schenk production always filled the house. But you expect an alleged star to be able to sell the house.
Better they served Beef Wellington…turkey would have been too obvious.
You might want to look up beef Wellington. It has remained very popular and multiple Michelin starred chefs have made videos on it. You can keep your jello salad, thanks.
Unless it’s William Bolcom’s Lime Jello Marshmallow Cottage Cheese Surprise.
After all these years, he still doesn’t get opera. His commentary reminds me of the regination letter proferred by the now ex Harvard President, who clearly showed she didn’t get the reason for her forced resignation.
She could NEVER have admitted why she was asked to leave. My first question was, “who did she plagiarize her resignation letter from?”. By the way NOBODY gets tenure for eleven article. And it all would have worked for her forever with the complicity of the Harvard Board if not for two hours in front of Ms. Stefanik. Ms. Gay was passed along from Phillips Academy , Princeton, Harvard, Stanford etc. Just where exactly was she purported to have suffered? In any even the Board could not admit anything either other wise their whole race baiting, grifting sham would collapse – as it will anyway.
Please stop doing the updates to great operas. It cheapens the opera and it’s history
A low class social climber who wants to be the biggest money throwing-self promoter in the scene, getting her ugly ass kissed by a woke soulless Gollumesque cheapskate hustler. Utterly predictable.
Your nasty post is totally unwarranted. Ms. Arsht comes from an accomplished family and became a very successful lawyer and bank chairman. Her philanthropy to the arts and social issues is beyond laudable.
Let’s see your CV.
Nonsense. And my CV is none of your, or anyone else’s, business. Keep on typing.
Do you actually know anything at all about Adrienne Arsht?
Gelb has single-handedly killed the greatest opera company in the world…somewhere Rudolf Bing is crying…
The Met hasn’t been “the greatest opera company in the world” since the 1950’s, and Rudolf Bing was hardly a paragon of opera house management. If he were running the show now the Met would have already gone bankrupt.
It’s almost like Gelb and the Board are intentionally trying to destroy this institution.
And zheyre succeeding!
See what I did there?
It’s not funny the second time either.
A quick look at the Met’s Board of Directors’ page illustrates that if ever there was an over heavy organization this is it. 10 Officers, an Executive Committee of 13, 45 Managing Directors, 6 Honorary Directors, 39 Advisory Directors, 31 Members of the Association and 21 Young Associate Directors.
Yes, I know these people are in their own little slots because they give certain amounts of cash. They also crave for social status. How much they actually know about opera and the complexities involved in running an opera company is surely extremely questionable, the more so as they are prepared to back up the unqualified and incompetent Gelb whatever rubbish he puts on their stage. I’ll bet in their own companies they’d quickly fire anyone as bad. Yet clearly their management skills (if they actually have any) are left at the door when they enter for their meetings. How it can be that so many people have been conned into believing that Gelb is the right man for the job is baffling in the extreme!
Funny how every Met-related post on Slipped Disc these days is a forum for the Russian trolls.
BTW, I hope the Met was taking some Covid precautions at their swanky gala. Case numbers are skyrocketing in NYC right now.
You are totally correct, and they are not.