Grand Opera: The Story of the Met (62 page)

1
. For biographical information on Peter Gelb, see Rebecca Mead, “Man behind the Curtain,”
New Yorker
(Oct. 22, 2007): 138–49; and Nina Munk, “The Met’s Grand Gamble,”
Vanity Fair
(May 2010). “knowledge of marketing”: Mead,
New Yorker
(Oct. 22, 2007): 141. “I thought, Oh”: ibid., 148. “My pitch to”: Munk,
Vanity Fair
.

2
. “access was more”: Mead,
New Yorker
(Oct. 22, 2007): 144. Volpe is said to have cast a jaundiced eye on Gelb’s work at the Met from the start. In 1992, he replaced Gelb’s executive producer position with a radio network producer and a television producer: “I didn’t need an executive producer. Guess why? I was the executive producer.” In 2006, Gelb created the position of director of media and presentations, to which he appointed Mia Bongiovanni. “occasionally directed”: “Peter Gelb, General Manager,”
www.metoperafamily.org
. “He didn’t leave”: Ralph Blumenthal,
Times,
May 23, 1995.

3
. “anything written for”: Allan Kozinn,
Times,
Nov. 7, 2004.

4
. “Popera”:
The Lebrecht Weekly,
Nov. 11, 2004. “Pop singers are”: Barry Singer, “Mission,”
Opera News
(Jan. 2006), 16. “a producer . . . is”: Mead,
New Yorker
(Oct. 22, 2007): 141. “I am a”: Munk,
Vanity Fair
(April 2010).

5
. “horribly”: Volpe to executive committee, Oct. 20, 2005. In 2005–06, subscribers accounted for 50 percent of attendance; in Bing’s day, they had accounted for 75 percent. Joseph Volpe with Charles Michener,
The Toughest Show on Earth: My Rise and Reign at the Metropolitan Opera
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006), 250–51. “reach out to”: Gelb to executive committee, Oct. 20, 2005. A comparison of the first seasons for which Gelb felt fully responsible, 2009–12, with Volpe’s last three seasons shows no meaningful change in either the commitment of the stars to an increased number of productions annually or to a greater number of performances of each production. What Gelb had in mind were “paintings or sculptures based on their [the artists’] impressions of operas and opera characters in next season’s repertoire at no cost to the Met”: Gelb to board, Jan. 19, 2006. A gallery for this purpose was carved out of the south lobby. In the midst of negotiations on the media project, there was an embarrassing demonstration on Lincoln Center Plaza by nonunionized workers employed by a firm to which the Met had outsourced its food services. “to make the”: Gelb to board, May 25, 2006.

6
. “What fuels me”: interview with Shelley DuBois, Dec. 6, 2011. “There is a”: Hamburg speech, 1997, cited in Mead,
New Yorker
(Oct. 22, 2007): 147.

7
. “the Metropolitan Opera”: Julie Bosman,
Times,
August 29, 2006. For
Madama Butterfly
and the Saks Fifth Avenue display, see
Times,
April 13. It was Varis who underwrote a program to further another of Gelb’s ambitions: to open the doors of the house to a wider public. Two hundred rush tickets in the orchestra were reserved for weekday performances (later extended to the weekend as well) at $20. On her death in 2011, the program was sustained by board members and a subsidy from the Met.

8
. “preem fizzles”: Arthur Bronson, Dec. 1. “The view . . . that”: Jack Gould,
Times
. “a stirring experience”: John Crosby,
Herald Tribune
.

9
. Risë Stevens’s low-cut Carmen costume drew “audible gasps from the big-screen patrons”:
Variety,
Dec. 17, 1952.

10
. “From the start”: Wilborn Hampton, “Peter Gelb on HD Live, His Controversial Gamble at the Met,”
Huffington Post,
Oct. 11, 2012. For an accounting of the first season of “Live in HD,” see Daniel J. Wakin,
Times,
May 17, 2007. For
Billboard
rankings, see Dade Hayes, “Pop Goes to the Opera,”
Variety,
April 2–April 8, 2007.
For Gelb in the TV satellite truck, see Munk,
Vanity Fair
(May 2010). Neubauer Family Foundation sponsorship of the HD telecasts began with the 2007–08 season; Bloomberg began with the 2009–10 season. The telecasts carry this acknowledgment: “ ‘The Met: Live in HD’ series is made possible by a generous grant from its founding sponsor, The Neubauer Family Foundation. Global corporate sponsorship of ‘The Met: Live in HD’ is provided by Bloomberg.”

11
. “It’s like watching”: Lawrence Johnson,
Musical America Worldwide
(Dec. 16, 2008).

12
. “unpleasant artistic experiences”:
Seattle Post-Intelligencer,
Feb. 13, 2006. “for the duration”:
New Yorker
(Oct. 9, 2006): 89–90.

13
. “the lyrical set”: Peter G. Davis,
New York
(Jan. 8, 2007). “in a dream”: Matt Wolf, “Unconventional Means,”
Opera News
(March 2007): 28.

14
. For Gelb’s engagement of Sher, see Helen Sheehy, “Sher Touch,”
Opera News
(Nov. 2006): 27. In “Resisting Rossini, or Marlon Brando Plays Figaro,”
Opera Quarterly
(Spring-Summer 2011): 153–78, Mary Ann Smart examines Sher’s production in her analysis of artifice and naturalism in operatic staging.

15
. “not tolerate the”: “The Opera,”
North American Review
(Feb. 1892): 215.

16
. “the star of”: Zachary Woolfe,
Times,
Sep. 23, 2011. “a natural actress”: Mike Silverman,
Associated Press,
Dec. 6, 2006. “a true stage”: Anne Midgette,
Times,
Dec. 27, 2006. “Was crazy, no”:
Observer
(England), Sept. 7, 2007.

17
. For Dessay’s criticisms of Zimmerman, see the television interview with Charlie Rose, Oct. 9, 2007, Youtube. “whatever you do”: Rebecca Mead, “The Actress,”
New Yorker
(March 2, 2009): 58. Ostling designed the 2009
La Sonnambula
. Chantal Thomas designed the 2008
La Fille du régiment
.

18
. John Cox directed the 2008
Thaïs;
no designer is credited in the Met annals. The Nicolas Joël production of the 2008
La Rondine
was directed by Stephen Barlow and designed by Ezio Frigerio. Adrian Noble directed and Mark Thompson designed the 2007
Macbeth
. David McVicar directed and Charles Edwards designed the 2009
Il Trovatore
. Richard Jones directed and John Mcfarlane designed the 2007
Hänsel und Gretel
. John Doyle directed and Scott Pask designed the 2008
Peter Grimes
.

19
. “All these devices”: David J. Baker,
Opera News
(Feb. 2009): 52.

20
. “In the final”: Midgette,
Washington Post,
April 14, 2008.

21
. For Gelb’s expectation of losses in the first three years of his tenure, see Judith H. Dobrzynski, “A Knight at the Opera: Big Plans—Large Bills,”
Wall Street Journal (Online),
April 24, 2008. Volpe responded to Gelb’s agenda with skepticism: “Mr. Volpe said he had concerns about how the house would pay for Mr. Gelb’s ambitious plans. ‘Hopefully it will be financed and it will be funded,’ he said. ‘If it’s not, then Peter will have to reconsider.’ ” Wakin,
Times,
Feb. 14, 2006. For annual reports for the years 2007–08 and 2008–09, and for Form 990 of the Met’s Federal Income Tax return for 2010–11, see
www.metopera.org
. Erica Munk remarks that the Met has been unforthcoming in releasing financial information. See Munk, “The Met’s Grand Gamble,”
Vanity Fair
(May 2010). Her piece is based on the twelve years of data she “managed to gather.” We rely on her analysis.

22
. For Gelb on the fiscal crisis, see Wakin,
Times,
Jan. 16, 2009. The endowment was $336 million in fiscal 2007 and $247 million in fiscal 2009.

23
. “a decision of”: Erica Orden,
New York Magazine
(Feb. 27, 2009). For the depletion of the Met endowment, see Munk,
Vanity Fair
(May 2010). For the Met budget for 2009–10, see Rebecca Olles,
Crain’s New York Business,
Oct. 9, 2011. In March 2013, Ziff family contributions were reported to have exceeded $53 million, see Chip Brown,
Times,
March 24, 2013.

24
. For the average age of the Met audience, see Charlotte Higgins,
Guardian
(London), Dec. 9, 2011. “we’ve covered all”: Warrick Thompson, “Star Manager Gelb’s Live Broadcasts Make 11 Million for Met,”
Bloomberg.net,
March 4, 2012. “acknowledged for the”: Wakin and Kevin Flynn,
Times,
Oct. 10, 2011. “that competition from”: Anthony Tommasini,
Times,
March 15, 2013. Early on, in 2007–08, Opera America and the Metropolitan, working with Shugoll Research, conducted a survey to “analyze the impact of the Met’s HD transmissions.” See
Opera America
(Fall 2008): 38–44. Given the infancy of the project, the findings were few and tentative. They included the following: the core audience comprised primarily frequent operagoers; the majority of respondents professed to derive equal enjoyment from live opera and simulcasts; most of those who had not been at a live performance in two years agreed that they were likely to attend one in the near future, implying that “HD transmissions may serve to reintroduce these recent non-attendees to opera.” But the big question was, and remains, “What has been the impact of HD on opera house attendance?” The research team’s tentative conclusion was that “the transmissions may truly be creating a new audience for opera.” About Gelb and the HD public, see Tommasini,
Times,
March 15, 2013. “uncommonly high amount”: cited in Philip Boroff, “Met Opera to Sell $1 Million in Bonds as Revenue Drops,”
Bloomberg,
Dec. 11, 2012.

25
. For Gelb on Zeffirelli’s
Tosca:
“I promised the Met subscribers when I first came on board—well, I didn’t promise anything, but I did say that there were two iconic Zeffirelli productions,
Bohème
and
Turandot,
and that the other Zeffirelli productions are going to be replaced. A lot of these things are just sitting there like lead weights, so there is a lot of catching up to do.” Mead,
New Yorker
(Oct. 22, 2007): 143–44. “The Met’s New”: Midgette,
Washington Post
, Sept. 22, 2009. “An uneven, muddled”: Ross,
New Yorker
(Oct. 5, 2009): 84. “puny and halfhearted”: F. Paul Driscoll,
Opera News
(Dec. 2009): 53. “A Kinky Take”: Tommasini, Sept. 23, 2009. “Schweinerei”: Walter Dobner,
Die Presse,
June 30, 2010. “Volgare verismo”: Paolo Isotta,
Corriere della Sera,
April 24, 2012. “Refreshingly blasphemous edge”: Andrea Kohler,
Neue Zürcher Zeitung,
Sept. 3, 2009. “life and relevance”: Adam Margulies,
Opera Britannia,
Oct. 1, 2009.

26
. For the booing of
Tosca,
see Charles Affron and Mirella Jona Affron,
Times,
Sept. 27, 2009. “fiasco”: Brown,
Times,
March 24, 2013.

27
. Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leiser directed and Christian Fenouillat designed the 2010
Hamlet
. Ferdinand Wögerbauer designed the 2010
Boris Godunov
. Bob Crowley designed the 2010
Don Carlo
.

28
. Offenbach’s posthumous score has often been rearranged; the 2009–10 version contained much music never before heard at the Met. Levine was criticized for
not adopting musicologist Michael Kaye’s recent scholarly edition. For Sher on Hoffmann’s character: “I think Offenbach had that sense of anxiety and outsiderness that comes with being Jewish. I think it was his core.” Barry Singer, “Bartlett’s Quotations,”
Opera News
(Dec. 2009): 28. “enough time to”: Munk,
Vanity Fair
(May 2010). “political instability”: Anna Battista, “Prada at the Opera,”
www.dazeddigital.com
, Feb. 23, 2010. “stage picture . . . all”: Heidi Waleson,
Wall Street Journal,
March 4, 2010.

29
. “reconceptions . . . are as”: Tommasini,
Times,
Jan. 3, 2011. Wolfgang Gussmann designed the 2010
La Traviata
.

30
. “the thumbprint of”: William R. Braun (July 2010): 43.

31
. Ross, “Metamorphosis,”
New Yorker,
89–90. Ross, “Crack-up at the Met,” May 23, 2012,
www.newyorker.com
.