Looking at Peter Gelb From Both Sides Now (thank you, Joni)

Operagoers are known - and for good reason to be a lot prone toward the "clutching of pearls"  . . . not to mention the wringing of hands and this 65 year old man has been hearing - since boyhood - the constant cry of of "this is the end of opera."   I call bullshit. As ever, we're hearing that again now, with all fingers pointing toward Gelb. He indeed has made a bunch of mistakes - some boneheaded ones - but so did every single one of his predecessors and people need to (but won't) remember none of this began with Gelb.

While many journalists are quick to point out his faults (and again, there are enough of those to fill a book) it should also be said that there have been some major improvements, regardless of what the naysayers claim. 

One of the best improvements has been the contracting of the conducting assignments.  Under  Levine we didn't get a lot of variety really., but Gelb introduced the company to many leaders who previously had never worked there before, or as in some instances had not been heard from in many years: Simon Rattle, Harry Bicket, Lorin Maazel, Fabio Luisi, William Christie, Riccardo Muti, Jiri Bělohlávek, Kirill Petrenko, Daniel Barenboim, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Gianandrea Noseda, Andris Nelsons and, of course course like him or not, Yannick Nézet-Séguin.  

Let’s also not forget the live broadcasts so many enjoy from opening night through the very end of the season. The Met's Sirius channel - and then free weekday broadcasts began under Gelb’s watch. This didn't include just the opera repertoire, but galas, recitals by the likes of Jonas Kaufmann and Rene Pape, as well as the Met Orchestra concerts broadcast from Carnegie Hall with celebrated soloists.  

Then there are the archival performances– many complaints that some of their favorite performances have not yet been put into circulation, but for goodness’ sake, look how many gems we’ve been able to enjoy for the first time in over 70 years, and in some cases – ever before attracting audiences to performances that occurred before many were even born.  

During the Pandemic, while there were contentious battles fought with the unions, audiences  at home were STILL treated to nightly FREE streaming from the vaults of HD and old Live From the Met telecasts. But let's not talk about that!

Gelb lifted the ban on Met season artists from appearing during the Richard Tucker Galas –a ban both ridiculous and counterintuitive to its own interests.

The repertory has increased with more commissions in the last 20 years than in the previous half century.  Some may despise the new works (and they make that very loudly heard), but even more so, works like Strauss’ “Die Ägyptische Helena”; Tchaikovsky’s  Mazeppa (which needs to come back), and his Iolanta; Glass’ Satyagraha  and Akhnaten; Adams’ Doctor Atomic, Nixon in China and The Death of Klinghoffer, Janacek’s From the House of the Dead”; Rossini’s Armida and Comte d’Ory” Donizetti’s Queen Trilogy; Shostakovich’s The Nose; Verdi’s Attila; Puccini’s “La Rondine” Ades' "The Exterminating  Angel" and "The Tempest"; Handel's Agrippina; Mussorgsky's original version of Boris Godunov"; Aucoin's Eurydice; Picker’s An American Tragedy; Ades The Tempest and The Exterminating Angel; Muhly’s Two Boys and Marnie the NY premiere of Fire Shut Up in My Bones"; and Champion, and Dean's magnificent Hamlet. These, and more have made Met goers aware there is a whole, vastly underexplored world of opera out there. Whether or not they embraced it all is not as relevant as that it happened in the first place!  Some here will disagree. That is our nature. 

While a number of new productions of old works were Dead on Arrival (e.g., “Attila”), there have been a decent number of hits (some previously mentioned above); including . . . Prince Igor, Penny Woolcock’s Les Pêcheurs de Perles; William Kentridge’s Lulu; Patrice Chéreau’s Elektra;  Bartlett Sher’s Romeo et Juliette; David McVickar’s Giulio Cesare and François Girard’s Parsifal.  And there's one of the staples that caused the most provocation yet , one met with jeers and cheers but definitely shook things up: Simon Stone's Lucia di Lammermoor.  

But yes, while some of us may see this as all, or mostly good, Gelb has made any number of bone-headed, uninformed decisions, but the fact is, that’s part and parcel of the job. It has a long history that pre-dates his administration.  I've shared these before, but they bear repeating . . . sadly.  Some of it may sound . . . familiar. 

"The opera always loses money.  That's as it should be.  Opera has no business making money."   - Sir Rudolf Bing

“We are currently projecting the box office to achieve 76 percent of capacity versus a budget of 80 percent (capacity), resulting in a shortfall of $4,303,000.”  -  Joseph Volpe

". . . during the Centennial year (1983), while the Met garnered international attention, it was faced with a deficit of $4 million.  None of the new productions that year - Handel's ‘Rinaldo’, Verdi's ‘Ernani’, and Zandonai's ‘Francesca di Rimini’ - were received with much enthusiasm by the public . . . box office income dropped as expenses increased.  Another financial crisis loomed.  Another problem was the Centennial Endowment itself.   Donors . . . did not increase or in some cases (only) maintained their usual annual contributions, so annual giving dropped off . . . what the Board always feared would happen . . . "   Johanna Fiedler in  "Molto Agitato."

I'll stop - but to anyone who made it through another of my rants, I offer congratulations and apologies - whichever fits.