{"id":67109,"date":"2020-02-27T11:29:17","date_gmt":"2020-02-27T16:29:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=67109"},"modified":"2020-02-28T14:55:47","modified_gmt":"2020-02-28T19:55:47","slug":"lizsts-5-essential-lessons-peter-gelb-has-learned-from-the-met-opera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2020\/02\/27\/lizsts-5-essential-lessons-peter-gelb-has-learned-from-the-met-opera\/","title":{"rendered":"LIZSTS | 5 Essential Lessons Peter Gelb Has Learned From The Met Opera"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Peter
Peter Gelb, General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. (Photo: Brigitte Lacombe)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“Opera is an old art form. We\u2019re trying to teach it new tricks” \u2014 Five key takeaways from Peter Gelb’s 14 years as General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera.<\/strong><\/p>\n

New York\u2019s Metropolitan Opera<\/strong> is having the season of valhallian dreams.<\/p>\n

The potential of Fran\u00e7ois Girard\u2019s Flying Dutchman <\/em><\/a>(March 2-27) is already reviving memories of the director\u2019s Parsifal <\/em>from the recent past. The fall\u2019s hit Met offering of Porgy and Bess<\/em><\/a> saw its run extended. Philip Glass\u2019 \u201cun-Aida\u201d Egyptian Akhnaten <\/em>received rock concert reviews. And the season has been front-to-back solid with stars on the rise. One example: American soprano \u2014 and marathon runner \u2014 Lisette Oropesa proved she owns the title role in Jules Massanet\u2019s opera comique, Manon. <\/em><\/p>\n

The question is: How flash-in the pan will this prove to be for Met General Manager Peter Gelb.<\/strong> He\u2019s been the opera world\u2019s pi\u00f1ata since he took over in 2006 \u2014 at a salary now over $2 million-plus \u2014 with promises of modernizing the Met experience answered with Met Opera Live in HD <\/em><\/a>broadcasts, and the company on Met Opera Radio-SiriusXM. <\/em>Today a $312-million-plus (U.S.) operation, the Met is world\u2019s largest repertory theatre, with 3,800 seats. \u201cStill, part of my job is always raising money,\u201d Gelb tells me.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s been at the mercy of the media after threatening the company with bankruptcy in 2014 as seat sales dropped to the 80 percent level. Equally unpleasant was always being compared to the legendary Met boss, Rudolf Bing, the impresario who moved the company into Lincoln Centre in 1964. (All Giulio Gatti-Casazza the Italian-born earlier Met head had to do was have the company survive the Great Depression.)<\/p>\n

(A deeper more New York question is, how would Gelb\u2019s father have dealt with junior\u2019s mercurial career. Arthur Gelb was a powerhouse New York Times <\/em>journalist\/arts editor\/executive almost his death in 2014 aged 90. He knew a lot about fame and how to create it as when he \u201cdiscovered,\u201d Barbra Streisand and boosted Times<\/em> careers of Frank Rich and Maureen Dowd. Even so, I\u2019d guess junior would catch a break from Arthur this year.)<\/p>\n

In fact, is it time to suggest that Peter Gelb, all of 67-years-old, has been far more right than wrong all along, and that his \u201cvision\u201d \u2014 a word he uses a fair amount \u2014 that well be a template for other companies?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to be agile, artistically nimble and thoughtful,\u201d says Gelb. \u201cIt\u2019s not easy. Opera is an old art form. We\u2019re trying to teach it new tricks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Five essential Gelb lessons (so far) go this way:<\/strong><\/p>\n

+ Follow the money<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u201c<\/strong>This year we had Sunday matinee performances because we have new audiences for the Met,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019re changing to conform to the new audience. Next season there\u2019ll be no performances in February but more in the Spring itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

+ Re-think what opera asks and can deliver<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u201cWe are developing shorter operas for family,\u201d says Gelb. How about 90-minute works?<\/p>\n

+Broaden the repertory<\/strong>.<\/h3>\n

\u201cWhether it\u2019s a new production of an older work, or a new work,\u201d says Gelb. \u201cPart of my vision is to introduce at least one work that\u2019s new to the repertory.\u201d He cites jazz trumpeter Terrance Blanchard\u2019s Fire Shut Up In My Bones<\/em> opera scheduled for the 2021-\u201922 season. The Blanchard will be the Met\u2019s first opera from an Afro-American composer.<\/p>\n

Gelb: \u201cPhilip Glass\u2019 Akhanten<\/em> is not a work I planned for the Met. I resisted it initially until I saw it at the Los Angeles Opera (it opened in 2016). And I fell in love with it. I can\u2019t claim to have taken part in the creative aspect other than being smart enough to bring it to New York.\u201d<\/p>\n

+ Don\u2019t<\/em> go pop.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u201cAll of this doesn\u2019t<\/em> mean we\u2019re going to produce opera as a pop experience. We have a symphony orchestra. We have a chorus. We are an opera house.\u201d<\/p>\n

+Think long-term.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u201cAlways find a path to financial stability; always find ways to manage costs to further amplify earning potential.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u2014 \u2014 \u2014 \u2014<\/h1>\n

For the complete Met Live in HD broadcasts, see full listings at Cineplex Events<\/a>.<\/p>\n

#LUDWIGVAN<\/em><\/h3>\n

Want more updates on classical music and opera news and reviews? Follow us\u00a0on\u00a0<\/em>Facebook<\/b><\/a><\/em><\/span>,\u00a0<\/span><\/em>Instagram<\/b><\/a><\/em>\u00a0<\/b><\/span>or\u00a0<\/em>Twitter<\/b><\/a><\/em><\/span>\u00a0for all the latest.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Opera is an old art form. We\u2019re trying to teach it new tricks” \u2014 Five key takeaways from Peter Gelb’s 14 years as General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":67179,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[33451,5797,43],"tags":[2207,2618],"yst_prominent_words":[16260,13302,31566,35393,35452,7170,35450,35397,35394,13725,34944,15967,35384,7059,35383,35379,6886,35341,19850,35382],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/02\/Peter-Gelb-4-met-opera.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-hsp","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67109"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67109"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67227,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67109\/revisions\/67227"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67109"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=67109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}