Life Before Peter Gelb. What will life after look like?

Rudolf Bing

There was once an autocrat named Rudolf Bing, who served as General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera from 1950 to 1972.  Previously, he had served in a similar capacity in Berlin and Darmstadt.  The son of a well-to-do Jewish family, he and his Russian-born wife fled Nazi Germany in 1934 for Great Britain, where he founded the opera festivals at Glyndebourne and Edinburgh.  Needless to say, he was eminently qualified for the post in New York.

While not without controversy (well-known was his banishment of famed soprano Maria Callas in 1958; she would not return until her final year of performing, 1965), his achievements were, for their time, more than remarkable.  He integrated the company with Marian Anderson appearing in 1955.  Many other artists of color would follow.  Beverly Sills, herself a future chair of the Met Board, had to wait until Bing's retirement until she sand her 1975 Met debut (Bing later admitted his mistake).  And, of course, Bing oversaw the company's move from the "Golden Horseshoe" on Broadway to the new Met at Lincoln Center.

Bing's tenure was not without its own labor strife.  The 1969 season did not commence until December due to protracted labor negotiations.  According to the New York Times, “it took years for the Met to recover the subscribers it lost during the 1969 strike.”

Bing was never afraid to speak his mind, regardless of the artist.  About George Szell, he wrote,

"Mr. Szell's comments on my work at the Metropolitan leave me cool. I am completely disinterested in his artistic judgement on stagecraft. Mr. Szell before emigrating to this country, worked at a medium class German theatre in Czechoslovakia and since then has never seen or done opera outside the Metropolitan. His knowledge on the subject is of no consequence."

And to a writer who protested his mere suggestion that the stage of the Metropolitan was open to all, regardless of race,

"Thank you for your letter of April 19th and for the kind interest you are displaying in the Metropolitan Opera's affairs.

I don't think that I will have any Negro singers in next season's roster as there are no suitable parts and the roster is complete, but I am afraid I cannot agree with you that as a matter of principle, Negro singers should be excluded. This is not what America and her allies have been fighting for.

Thank you for having written to me."

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James Levine

After Schuyler Chapin's three years as General Manager, the leadership of the company was divided among a General Manager, Artistic Director, and Director of Productions.  The one constant from 1973 until the present has been conductor James Levine, who has molded the Met Orchestra into one of the best ensembles in the world.  During this time, the company also celebrated its centennial with a two day, eight hour gala performance featuring 26 performers from the Met's glorious past:  it was here that Birgit Nilsson appeared for the last time on the Met stage.

In 1980, the employees of the Met were locked out after labor negotiations, having begun in January, reached no conclusion by the beginning of September.  This lengthy stoppage did result in more equitable compensation for the Met orchestra, based upon the number of required services per week, improved benefits, and vastly improved per diem rates when the company was on tour.  But still, the season opened late and subscribers would be slow to return.  But, of course, they did and the Metropolitan Opera settled into a kind of Pax Romana that would last for nearly a quarter century.

Joseph Volpe

In 1990, the company returned to a single leader, Joseph Volpe.  Having started his career at the Met as a carpenter, Volpe's tenure was monumental.  International tours were expanded, the Met Orchestra began its own concert series at Carnegie Hall, and the repertoire was considerably expanded, with four world premieres and 22 Met premieres, more new works than had been heard in decades.  And a few of the great artists to grace the Met's stage included Diana Damrau, Natalie Dessay, Renée Fleming, Juan Diego Flórez, Angela Gheorghiu, Susan Graham, Ben Heppner, Anna Netrebko, Bryn Terfel, and Deborah Voigt.

Volpe could be a tyrant, more often that not, but the man got things done and was willing to do whatever possible to insure the high standards of the only employer he'd ever had.  In addition to his artistic and technical successes, Volpe's tenure included the tripling of the Met's endowment (to over $300 million) and the largest gifts ever made to the company.  It seems important to note that the endowment has actually shrunk dramatically since Volpe's departure.

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And then came Peter Gelb, whose spendthrift ways (a 50% increase in the company's budget in eight years, far exceeding substantive corporate and private donors as well as falling ticket sales.  In current labor talks with all of the unions (contracts for every musician, stagehand, carpenter, etc. expired on July 31), Gelb's standard line seems to be pay cut or lockout.  It was reported that he turned down a proposed five-year pay freeze from the stage hands, insisting instead in a 14.5% reduction in salary and benefits.

Federal mediators have been called in and there will be an independent audit of the books, so that all concerned can see the true financial picture.  There remains rumor and innuendo, and much of this should have been cleared up when talks began in the spring, but Peter Gelb is definitely out of his league, much like Michael Henson, former CEO of the Minnesota Orchestra.

Antony Tomassini writes in The New York Times, "It’s telling that both sides have latched on to the role of new productions to buttress their arguments. Mr. Gelb has long said that bold new productions will bring opera in line with the latest currents in theater and entice new audiences to the house and to the Met’s HD simulcasts around the world, which are reaching some 2.5 million viewers each season. The unions claim that the new productions are too risky and expensive.  Outsiders cannot possibly understand the internal dynamics of an institution as large and complex as the Met. But this argument over the new productions could compromise the artistic ambition and global influence of the company."

Apparently, some of the new productions--particularly Francois Girard's Parsifal--was a genuine success.  The same cannot be said of this season's "unfocused" Eugene Onegin or the tetralogy that has become better known as the debate of the machine: Robert Lepage's "Ring" cycle.  Herein was proof that stage directors and designers have become too important a part in the production of the grandest of operas.  Throughout the run of the "Ring," it seemed (at least from this far away) that too much print was spent discussing whether or not the machine was working that evening, rather than upon the magnificent voices necessary to mount a successful "Ring."

Tomassini continues, "Overall, the mix of solid hits and so-so shows under Mr. Gelb had been about in line with the record of previous general managers. Yet, Mr. Gelb’s new productions seem not to have reversed the decline in attendance. At a time of financial crisis, he must grapple with tough questions: Will he continue with the Met’s “Traviata” for the foreseeable future? Having seen it once, will Verdi fans, even those deeply affected by the production, want to see it again? And again?

When Mr. Gelb arrived in 2006, he presented himself as a business-savvy savior come to bring innovation to a field in crisis and rescue a great company heading toward insolvency. Such talk, among other annoying things, slighted the record of his predecessor, Joseph Volpe, who, during 16 years, expanded the Met’s repertory with some 20 works new to the company, including daring 20th-century operas like Shostakovich’s “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District,” a powerful 1994 production slated to return this season. You could argue that another Volpe initiative, Met Titles, the company’s innovative system of seat-back English translations,introduced in 1995, did as much, if not more, to demystify opera and entice newcomers to the house than the HD broadcasts."
Strangely silent and no one has heard from him at all is conductor James Levine, who, because of health issues, has been away from the podium for several seasons.  Perhaps Maestro Levine should at least insert himself into the negotiations in some way, for a sense of historical continuity if for nothing else.

The Met is at a crossroads.  One can only hope it moves in the right direction and not the road travelled by the now defunct City Opera, which downsized its company and its offerings until there was nothing left.