Peter Gelb: How I, I, I saved the Met
OperaFrom the general manager’s self-admiring Sunday sermon in the pushover NY Times:
… I arrived at the Met in 2006 with plans to re-energize its audience engagement through new productions of the classics and new operas, but I had to take it relatively slowly or risk shocking our longstanding subscribers and patrons. It wasn’t until we were shut down during the pandemic that I seized the moment for some wholesale change.
That’s 3 uses of the first-person pronoun. And in the next paragraph two more:
Now and in the coming seasons, the Met, taking inspiration from the heyday of Puccini, is presenting more new and recent work than it has for a century — operas with rich melodic scores and contemporary story lines. And I’m proud to say that the average age of our single-ticket buyers, which was in the mid-60s when I began, is now 44.
And whoever imagined that opera was teamwork?
As an older guy, I find the constant complaining about seniors in the audience, to be extremely offensive.
Peter is 71. He’s not exactly GenX, despite the ill-fitting t-shirt.
What a sad case Gelb is. His ego is bigger than his talent. He is an opera ignoramus: he doesn’t really know anything about the musical scores [please don’t say that it isn’t his job etc.]. If you name a standard aria, he can’t tell you what a high note is, didn’t even know the word ‘tessitura’ when he took over the Met. It was distressing to see his choice for music director failing to keep Tosca together [far inferior to the many who have led this opera there, including Levine, Santi, C
You’d think we were a terminal disease…instead of legitimate ticket purchasers who have consistently attended performances for yrs!
And the average size of our audience, which was in the mid-80s (%) when I began, is now…
Absolutely full the other night for Tosca…..but the new operas? Sometimes….
Should the Met only run Toscas, Traviatas and Magic Flutes then? Is that what we want of an opera house?
there is more but your useless Gelb (his mediocre Maestra wife is equally mediocre) has killed the monstrous MET with a crazy so called woke program
No wonder the US had enough of liberal politics and sooner or later the MET will wake up as Gelb mostly brought an empty house – you should finally get rid of him after so many years – it’s not even democratic either
I gave you a strong like, alas only one, I wish I would give you 1000 likes!
If Tosca was full it was becouse of Puccini, sure not becouse of Gelb…
It was full because for about a week before the entire set of orchestra seats! yes orchestra seats! were sold for $60!!!! at that price you could have filled Yankee Stadium with a performance of Snow White! Another brilliant Gelb success made of smoke and mirrors. It’s hard to believe people would still use the old canard it was “full” when the real facts are well-known to most informed people!
Touché! So sad. And why brag that your ‘new’ audience is in their 40s? It would mean something positive were they in their 20s. Opera audiences are dying out [slowly]. What are Gelb’s qualifications? That he was once an usher. Imagine the ignorant usher watching Nilsson, Vickers, Karajan, Böhm, et al and saying ‘This is awful! Just wait til I take over!’ And what is the result? ‘Champion’? ‘Grounded’? Gel. should be GROUNDED.
I actually found Grounded quite moving I’m only going by the HD screening Ok it’s not a truly great opera but I could happily watch it again
One problem nowadays is that we expect all contemporary pieces to be worthy of integrating the core repertoire, or else they’re failures that should not have been commissioned. We forget that the ‘canon’ that we have today from Baroque/classical/romantic eras is a tiny portion of the musical output of this time. How many thousands symphonies, concertos, etc. have been utterly forgotten, all trace of them erased because they were performed and then not worth keeping? Why should we expect to strike gold every time now?
That the Met dares perform new opera, even when success (both artistic and commercial) is uncertain, is laudable.
So if Grounded had a premiere and a run, maybe gets revived once, sold/loaned to another house, and then scrapped, that doesn’t mean it was an error to commission it. History is full of those, and that’s how we get to the masterpieces that rise above the mean.
(Side question: how should Peter Gelb have known whether Grounded would be good, before he had commissioned it?)
You have a point. Nevertheless: what is the ratio of “striking gold” since the Rosenkavalier, and especially since 1945? It can only be far lower than any time between 1820 and 1910.
Since Grounded was first done at Washington, I believe, the Met knew what it was getting, and demanded revisions. Whether or not they should do it at all is not the same question as whether it should the be season-opening over-hyped flagship example of what they want to proclaim to the world as their raison d’etre these days.
Opera audiences are not dying out. We’ve been hearing this old trope for decades. Many people get interested in opera later in life. We never bemoan the absence of oldies in rap concerts; people grow out of it when they’re able to form a sentence without soiling themselves.
Of course not! It is a trope as you eloquently say. Major European theaters are always full! and even San Francisco and Chicago and Houston. The problem is the Met and the head of the snake!
If you think speaking of himself in the first person is overdone in this article, try sitting through a staff meeting with this megalomaniac. It is gag-inducing.
The Met’s sad situation predates the current political malaise of the US government, but there are certainly parallels. Life imitates art in this case…and both will be diminished for a generation, if not longer.
All accurate! The board just laps up Gelb’s arrogance during meetings. Of course, that is always the scenario everywhere when the great men [Trump, Musk, etc] hold court. But his ego is bigger than his talent. He has privately trashed the likes of past greats such as Nilsson and Vickers. He doesn’t really know anything.
“I I I I am the Bird of America, the Bald Eagle, Continental Principality…”…
And a thought-leader for the ditto heads?
No, that’s three uses of a SINGULAR first-person pronoun in the first paragraph. There are also two plural first-person pronouns, one of them possessive.
Corporate music journalism, particularly the brand practiced at the NY Times, has only one core function: to make the rich members on boards of directors feel good. Anything else is incidental.
True!!! Thank you!!! The New York Times is complicit in this current sinking and lowering of standards. Except for one critic, they are afraid to challenge Gelb. Terrible staff. Even Schonberg and Henahan, who didn’t know much, were better. But Opera Wire does just as much harm.
— You nailed it. Woke capitalism, spooned straight from the jar.
Curiously but maybe understandable given the general sense of despondency in the business, Gelb, like many others in his position, failed once more to address The Elephant In The Room. For it is inconvenient. Such an elephant is the unprecedented disappearance on a global scale of important voices and artists of singular distinction that one can recognize through their signature sounds and delivery. That absent, no amount of new Public Broadcasting Service-style (formerly CNN) Opera will help revive an art form on a fast dwindling supply of life support. And sorry to break the news but no, “Lise” ain’t IT.
You nailed it. There are so few singers worth hearing today. The Met gets some of them, but not all of them. I don’t know whether it doesn’t try had enough (or pay enough) to get the rest of them, but casts are often not worth the price of admission. And hardly anyone can sing the core Italian repertoire these days.
However, I don’t think the Met should be substituting expensive, ridiculously “updated” productions for lack of great singers. I don’t know how anyone can take opera seriously as drama when the stage action bears little or no relation to what the libretto says. And I don’t know what insights are gained by, for example, moving Rigoletto from the period in which it belongs to Weimar Germany. Or Carmen to the American Rust Belt (which, by the way, is not on the U.S. border).
The Met should pick repertory based on the best singers available. There are lots of Eastern European singers, so why not do more of the great Russian or Czech repertoire? (Yes, I know — it’s a bit harder now that the Ukraine situation has knocked some Russian singers out of the running. But there are others.) The same Italian operas with mediocre casts is not a recipe for success.
I am located far away from the States now but I watch videos and video clips. There was one from Calgary and it was opera, and then another from Housten, and that was unmistakably opera too. The ones from the Met new Tosca were anything but.
The very heart of the Rust Belt, Ohio and Pennsylvania, are both on the Canadian border, which is in the middle of Lake Erie. Border patrol officers are VERY present along the lakefront.
Lisette is more the mark than Lise. Gelb can’t shoot straight.
The other elephant, one he himself brought into the room, is Regietheater. An elephant which most older people apparently can’t coexist with. And that elephant may explain the decline in average age.
Personally, I was in my early 40s when I decided to stop attending Regietheater, no matter who conducted or sang. I had enough.
And what of the Endowment which, I understand, is continuously being raided to pay for Gelb’s glaring inefficiency as a singularly unqualified man for that job?
And there are rumors that the pending campaign is for $1 billion (yes, that’s b-i-l-l-i-o-n). I wonder how much is being touted to potential donors as “endowment”? It’s become a running joke.
If so, then the rumored major gift that will restore them to solvency is presumably going to be announced whenever they get out of whatever quiet phase they are in, and show momentum by claiming they have 30% of the goal or whatever? Will be interesting to see, if there is a campaign, how long it lasts and whether they can make their goal.
For the past 20 years, there has always been a rumor about a “transformative” gift. It has never materialized. Major gifts, certainly, but no grand daddy of them all.
Years ago, Peter wanted someone to name the opera house. He even went as far as to spend a ton (millions?) on a design for a front portico. I saw the rendering and THANK GOD it never saw the light of day.
Even if a mega gift does materialize, it will just be poured into the ever-increasing black hole, shoring up mounting deficits.
PG is gone after 2027. Pity his successor.
When the Met had its last major strike (I think), was not part of the agreement with the Unions that the board would actually increase the size of the Endowment and that a specific figure was mentioned? And am I not right in thinking that that figure was not only never reached, the size of the Endowment is now actually about half of it?
… utterly delusional …
The most important things he did was take precaution during the pandemic and to react affirmatively to the invasion of Ukraine. I greatly admire and appreciate his dedication and leadership. I only have one criticism that’s regarding the programming for live broadcasts. The audience wants mainstream repertoire rather than new or experimental music. Nobody wants to hear broken Glass!
Cut him some slack. He’s trying very hard to bounce back from the hard covid times.
Oh, honey, all this pre-dates COVID. You can beat the pandemic to death to cover past deficiencies, but there is a limit.
No matter what anyone says or does, Opera is a dying art form. Production costs will only continue to spiral upward, public interest will continue to decline – so the party is over – particularly in America.
The Met isn’t opera. The art form exists elsewhere.
[cont.] Conlon, Badea, Woitach. This is the current musical level?? And the attendance isn’t good.
I can’t tell from your post. Are you applauding these gentlemen (I worked with all 3 of them) or bemoaning their presence? None of them have worked for the Met for years and one passed away over 4 years ago.
He’s chasing the young audience because he chases the Broadway model. The foolishness of that errand is that 44-year-olds are not going to make long-term investments in the company and don’t have as much time and expendable income as 60-year-olds. Certainly we should be reaching out to younger audiences, but he has all but abandoned mature audiences, much to the Met’s detriment.
Unlike, I suspect, most of those who commented, I actually read the NYT piece, and did so without hunting for zinger targets. Its focus is not on Gelb at all, but on the larger problem of opera presentation in the U.S. The paragraph which the blogger quotes to begin his attack is the 14th (of 18). And while I agree with the piece’s entirety, its most salient paragraph is the last: “Those of us who believe in opera’s artistic and transformative power are committed to something more lasting than the next day’s reviews. We are working to create the circumstances in which opera can thrive and grow. While it means taking greater programming risks than ever before, the greatest risk of all is playing it safe.”
Thank you.
This is the first season I have no plans to visit MET at all. Itis sad to see how favorite artists disappearing from performances, thanks to cancel culture which Met became a big part of. Terrible productions of classic operas and pretty mediocre new ones.
Gelb ruined the Met by: ending the New Years Eve party scene that was televised with singers getting to sing whatever they wanted, by no longer printing the intermission features in Opera News, by overlooking American singers for Russian singers, by nasty lawsuits against singers who were injured on the job, by favoring only one diva instead of presenting many divas, by hiring bad stage directors who hated opera and tried to modernize operas, by spending huge amounts of money on a Ring production with scenery so dangerous that singers fell (Voigt in Die Walkure), by terrible casting decisions, his nasty attitude towards older patrons, by his nasty relationship with Opera News, which led to it ultimately shutting down, by spending on money on new operas that nobody wants to hear.
Meanwhile, I notice the NY Phil across the plaza is currently featuring music composed by black artists. Given how such members of society have long boomed in jazz, pop and other forms of culture and entertainment, I’m assuming those into the classical genre have been ignored in spite of their excellence. So participants like Leontyne Price (admittedly a singer, not a composer) deserve “no justice, no peace.”
As for Gelb, he should commission new operas that appeal to the TikTok, hip-hop generation.
Only a like you would make this comment.
The tik-tok, hip-hop generation have the attention span of gnats. An opera that would appeal to them would last 10 minutes tops.
The Who famously called their spectacular Tommy a “rock opera.” It was an exciting venture in pop music and has been successful both as a ballet and a film. It did not draw its fans into an opera house.
As for Gelb, perhaps he should commission fewer operas and concentrate on first-class presentation of established ones — selecting, if he wants “new,” some of the many, many underperformed operas that the Met has never done, or has not done in decades. Opera houses can give audiences “new” without reducing quality.
Perfectly stated. “…some of the many, many underperformed operas that the Met has never done, or has not done in decades. Opera houses can give audiences “new” without reducing quality.
The similarity with Trump is obvious – they both live in their own world of fantasy and self delusion!
Oh please. Let’s not make Reducctio ad Trumpum the new Reductio ad Hitlerum.
Why not? Have you seen that cabinet he is putting together?
The last time I was at the MET , two weeks ago, it was 35 proc full.
Way to go Mr Gelb ..
Gelb’s article is, for the most part, nonsense, vanity, and boosterism. I mostly attend contemporary opera and like most of it, but the Met’s promotion of it is failing economically. If it were successful you would see full auditoriums. You don’t. If it were successful, you would NOT see tons of seats offered on TDF. And Gelb would NOT be drawing down from the endowment year after year.
The Met can’t sell much of anything these days. Whether the casts are strong or not so strong, whether the opera is old or new, sales are poor.
Wake up and smell the coffee. Gelb’s model is unsustainable. The Met is hurtling towards bankruptcy. Fundamental, immediate change is required. Is Gelb up to it?
If it is saved, why does it smell so funny?
His promotion of new operas and his High tolerance level for remaking the standard repertoire into such ludicrously bad updated versions are two prime reasons why the audiences have been going down down down. A deep respect for the standard works of the 18th 19th and 20th century along with a judicious openness to new operas is the only way to go forward.
Bob Tuggle, the late Metropolitan Opera Archives Director used to call Gelb’s productions gimmicks. He hit the nail on the head. Talk about wasteful spending on theater no one wants to see.
That whirring sound you hear is Rudolf Bing spinning in his grave….
Are single ticket buyers the sole measure of success? What about subscribers and donors? They cannot all have died. Some of them must just be exasperated. Theater (not just Broadway, the Ballet, and the Symphony all seem to have recovered better than Opera. This shows opera must have an image/perception problem, rather than it being a lack of classical education, etc.
With respect, I’d suggest opera in general does not have an image problem – cetainly not a major one. It’s Gelb’s Met that has the image problem.
He destroyed the Met!
Well he is a “primo don”
The final death knell for the art form is precisely the type of new work he favors: preachy lifeless “issues“ libretto, set to bland nondescript music that has neither popular appeal, nor innovative -or other – qualities that might attract a musically literate audience. The worst of all worlds. Art by committee.
I’m surprised that commentators have not mentioned Gelb’s greatest problem , namely the colossal size of the house he runs. How do you fill it?
When I first went to the Met, 50 years or so ago, it was not always easy to get a seat at the last moment. It still sold out on occasion But the demographics of NYC have changed dramatically and the haute bourgeoisie (which every house depends on) has moved away somewhat.
To a cetain extent the size of the House is certainly one issue. But as Robin Worth points out, audiences flocked to it in its early years. Let’s recall also that the size of the audience seating was almost identical to that of the House the present Met replaced and it was almost always packed.
The cocktail that makes for a great opera performance includes such a wide variety of ingredients of which size of the House is just one. Throw into the mix, however, a hugely inexperienced opera CEO who should never have been appointed and who seems to have learned nothing during his nearly two decades in the shaker. You then have in the glass something too many just do not want to drink. But as I and others have stated in several posts, the finger also has to be pointed directly at the controlling Board which for so many years has had no clue how the House should be run.
I ought to add that the last time I saw a “sold out” notice, it was a Pavarotti performance. And I don’t think there were many who could do the same.
I live in Europe and there is a similar phenomenon here. Getting people into the opera house is not easy. I have been, in the last 12 months, at great performances in Berlin – both Deutsche and Staatsoper- and Dresden and seen empty seats in the stalls. The Royal Opera has recently offered 30% off two new productions. Vienna and Munich were both full, but both are rich cities with world class performers.
My conclusion : to succeed a house needs a substantial core of regular opera-goers who find the ticket prices affordable. Maybe the Met and Gelb are finding this impossible
Peter Gelb is like MRSA, once you get it, you are stuck with it and it too can lead to your demise. Let’s face it, he was a one trick pony with his video broadcast and has been perhaps the worst arts administrator of all time.
What I wrote in a comment I made yesterday but which for some reason still does not appear here is that SD shows its perfectly logical common sense when it tells us that no one but PG is to be blamed for all of Met’s problems and imperfections, but that this same PG does not ever deserve to be credited for any of Met’s successes and achievements. Well done, SD!
What successes and achievments since Gelb took over for the 2007-2008 season? He literally has nothing in his closet. As I said yesterday, he is literally the worst arts administrator of all time.
For me the glory of the Met ended with the farewell recital by Dame Joan Sutherland in 1989. The years that have followed have been full of mediocre singers and unlistenable new operas. There will always be something called opera, but a new form for an uneducated cultural society. Everyday I thank God I heard Caballe, Corelli, Price, Nilsson, Resynk, vickers, Tucker, Moffo. and so many others in the 60s and 70s. People tell me I’m living in a time warp, but I always remind them that I have the same ears I had in those decades, and my ears today hear very few voices like the aforementioned. I’ll live by my wonderful memories.of yore. Grand opera is no more.
The Met does not have a crisis of operas (doesn’t matter Puccini or Wagner or Zandonai). It has a crisis of star stars that people want to pay to hear. Contrary to mainstream media reports, opera is primarily about SINGING.
Moreover it’s not just the old fogeys who despise weird modern stagings. I know plenty of opera novices who yearns to see beautiful traditional sets with real trees and rocks.
True!!! It IS about great singing. I’ll save my money and watch Nilsson and Vickers et al on YouTube. And there were fabulous productions years ago, great directors and great designers. Most of it better than today. Zeffirelli, Everding, Strehler, Schenk… or Sher??? Do they think we are stupid???
“And I’m proud to say that the average age of our single-ticket buyers, which was in the mid-60s when I began, is now 44.”
Why is that? Did they stage an opera about Harry Potter?!
Don’t tempt them…
Don’t give him any ideas…
“Gelb ruined the Met by: ending the New Years Eve party scene that was televised with singers getting to sing whatever they wanted, by no longer printing the intermission features in Opera News, by overlooking American singers for Russian singers, by nasty lawsuits against singers who were injured on the job, by favoring only one diva instead of presenting many divas, by hiring bad stage directors who hated opera and tried to modernize operas, by spending huge amounts of money on a Ring production with scenery so dangerous that singers fell (Voigt in Die Walkure), by terrible casting decisions, his nasty attitude towards older patrons, by his nasty relationship with Opera News, which led to it ultimately shutting down, by spending on money on new operas that nobody wants to hear.”
THIS. ALL of this. This has to have been written by a singer. I’ll also add that the Met is an OPERA house that should be focused on SINGING, not production, not the orchestra, not conductors, not directors. Until singing becomes the most primary and important thing at the house (and houses all over the world,) opera will continue to diminish.
This is the single greatest, most truthful, most life-confirming post I have yet read. Thank you! I hope the public boycotts this era of mediocrity. What a waste of time and money.
I think PeterGelb should commission a statue of Peter Gelb [the size of the original Colossus of Rhodes] which will stand for eternity at the entrance to the newly-named Peter Gelb Metropolitan Opera House in the renamed Gelb [formerly known as Lincoln] Center. I for one will gladly contribute to this project.
The official unveiling, to be broadcast worldwide, would be accompanied by strains from the great operas, such as ‘Grounded’, ‘The Hours’ and ‘Champion.’