Metropolitan Opera's money crunch — Page 2

Huss417 said: "BorisTomashevsky said: "“Significant portions of the set were rebuilt”≠ “The set was rebuilt”"

Typical MAGA. You never can admit when you are wrong."

I will admit that SOME of the set was rebuilt. But not the entire set. “The set” implies the entire set.

Semantics means “meaning”. Meaning is important. It’s why “your side” can’t agree on anything and has such flimsy arguments, because no one can agree on what anything means, and there are no boundaries or definitions or parameters to the universe.

When City Opera added musical revivals to its seasons, it was the 1980s: Broadway revivals were rarer than they are now, places like Encores didn't exist, and the locals-to-tourists ratio of NYC theatergoing was different.

I also think a lot of musical theatre rightsholders would NOT want their works being placed into the Met repertoire nowadays and repeated every few years (which would prevent commercial producers from doing a Broadway mounting). Unless it was a reeeaally niche title that was unlikely to ever get a Bway revival (and in that case, it might struggle to sell at the Met).

I'd be all for the Met commissioning new works that blur the lines between opera and musical theatre, and I am all for musical theatre composers writing operas. Opera purists might feel otherwise.

When I said the sets hadn’t been touched in 20 years, I of course was referring to the pieces that are cobalt blue; they repainted everything else but they didn’t touch those pieces and you’re the moron if you didn’t understand that.

Adam Guettel to me is the perfect composer who blurs the lines between musical theater and opera. Light in the piazza actually has been done in opera houses, I think Renee Fleming played it. The hours also blurred the lines beautifully. Andrew Lloyd webbers Aspects of love could easily be done at the opera, it’s gorgeous

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/arts/music/kavalier-clay-met-opera-review.html


mixed review from the nyt on their first production of the season, directed by Bart Sher. It got mixed positive reviews overall.

"The 35 executives who make more than $150,000 a year will see graduated cuts in their pay of 4 percent to 15 percent, depending on their salaries. Among those affected is Gelb, who last year made nearly $1.4 million. Also included is Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the music director, who was paid about $2.05 million, both as the music director and for performances he conducted, for the fiscal year that ended in 2024, the latest year that disclosure forms are available."

I feel for the Met employees who make less than $150k and are being laid off. As for Gelb or Nezet-Seguin? They'll be fine.

It makes total sense to rent it out for concerts or other events, especially if the Met produces fewer productions. They don’t need to be precious about the hall, and hopefully they can bring in an aggressive booker. At 3800 seats it’s an ideal intermediate size between the Beacon and Radio City.

Why the Metropolitan Opera Needed a Saudi Lifeline

https://www.vulture.com/article/metropolitan-opera-saudi-arabia-funding.html

Seems like the Met and Gelb are really in a lose-lose to meh-meh situation. They're in between old school and new school, and neither school has the deep pockets to keep it afloat.