Nov 22 2007
Gelbing the Met
The New Yorker has a excellent article profiling Peter Gelb, the general manager of the Metropolitan Opera. Gelb, appointed to the post last summer, is thoroughly overhauling the company, making it more accessible and theatrical. One of his first efforts was to broadcast live matinee performances in high-definition video to movie theaters all over the world, which have been watched by around 325,000 people. I have seen several of these and they are really good. The Met is also on the web, with 100 performances dating back to 1937 available on Rhapsody. He is venturing into territory never penetrated by the Met before. It turns out that Novak Djokovic, Serbian tennis player and opera fan, had been introduced to Natalie Dessay, French soprano and tennis fan, at the US Open. Gelb arranged for Djokovic to watch Dessay rehearsing Lucia and took him on stage when she was done. Photographs of the two quickly appeared in outlets ranging from the LA Times sports pages to ESPN. The encounter is now on YouTube.
These and many other efforts have raised the Met’s cultural profile and, more importantly, increased ticket sales after six years of decline.
It seems to me that one of the many reasons for the decline in the number of people listening to and performing so-called classical music is that too often its presentation is too stuffy, stand-offish and insular. I really like Gelb’s efforts to get the Met out to the wider culture, and very encouraged that they seem to be working.