‘Hi Leah. It’s Peter Gelb’

In a chronicle that is currently being read by practically every opera singer on the planet, soprano Leah Partridge describes how she was hired as a cover by the Met and then unceremoniously dumped.

Among her conclusions:
If I could go back and do it all over, I would never have taken any cover contracts. I’d like for singers to understand that without clarity in your contract, you should know you will most likely be the absolute last choice, and if given enough time, they will try to get a star or someone ‘up and coming’ to fill your place. The idea of going on for someone and launching your career into stardom like Scotto going on for Callas is gone. At places like the MET, when you step into their roster as a cover, you no longer have the status of a singer they will promote or even care about….

Read here.

photo: Stacey Bode