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☆ Opinion | How to Save Opera in America? Make It New Again.
▼ + stars: | 2024-11-17 | by ( Peter Gelb | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In 1910, Puccini was in New York to supervise the opening night of his opera “La Fanciulla del West,” the Met’s very first world premiere. With the tenor Enrico Caruso and the soprano Emmy Destinn, household names in their day, in the leading roles, “Fanciulla” was a runaway hit. Now, more than 100 years later, with a severe lack of music education in our schools and competition from an ever-expanding array of streaming entertainment options, opera faces its greatest existential challenge. We are fighting to survive economically (our European colleagues are better off with substantial government funding), regain our artistic footing and secure new audiences and donors. This is particularly difficult to accomplish because for decades there has been resistance to substantial artistic change from administrators, academics and critics.

Persons: Lise Davidsen, Giacomo Puccini’s “, ”, Puccini, Enrico Caruso, Destinn, “ Fanciulla ” Organizations: Metropolitan Opera, scalpers Locations: New York, Fanciulla del West

NEW YORK (AP) — The Los Angeles Opera has scrapped plans for the world premiere of Mason Bates' “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay” this fall because of finances. The work will instead open with a student cast at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music. Cremo sent an email last month to Abra K. Bush, dean of the Jacobs School, suggesting the shift. Bates, 47, won a Grammy Award in 2019 for “The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs,” which premiered at the Santa Fe Opera in 2017 and was coproduced with the Jacobs School. “It's a story about Jewish immigrants changing American culture and certainly that resonates in LA,” Bates said.

Persons: Mason Bates, Clay, Bates, Michael Chabon's Pulitzer, Dorothy Chandler, Christopher Koelsch, Koelsch, “, ” Peter Gelb, Gelb, Jeanine Tesori, George Brandt, Evans Mirageas, Paul Cremo, Cremo, Bush, ” Bush, ‘, ’ ” Bush, Bartlett Sher, Michael Christie, Yannick Nézet, Mark Grimmer, Steve Jobs, Gene Scheer, ” Bates, ” Organizations: Los Angeles Opera, Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music, Metropolitan Opera, Musical Arts Center, LA, Met, Washington National Opera, Cincinnati, Jacobs School, Jacobs, Lincoln Center Theater, Santa Fe Opera Locations: Bloomington , Indiana, America, Abra K, Indiana, New York, LA

☆ Met Opera Taps Its Endowment Again to Weather Downturn
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-25 | by ( Javier C. Hernández | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The move came after the Met took $30 million from its endowment fund last season to help cover operating expenses amid weak ticket sales and a cash shortfall. Nonprofits usually try to avoid drawing down their endowments, which are meant to grow over time while producing investment income. The Met’s endowment fund is now worth about $255 million, down from $309 million in July. There is light at the end of the tunnel.”The company pointed to several signs that it may be turning the corner. And as the Met presents more contemporary opera, it is attracting younger audiences: The average age of single-ticket buyers for in-person performances has fallen to 44 from 50 before the pandemic.

Persons: we’re, ”, Peter Gelb Organizations: Metropolitan Opera

The opening night of a revival of Richard Wagner’s “Tannhäuser” at the Metropolitan Opera in New York was interrupted Thursday night by climate protesters shouting “No Opera” from the balconies on both sides of the opera house. Protesters with the group Extinction Rebellion NYC unfurled banners that read “No Opera On A Dead Planet,” according to Peter Gelb, the general manager at the Met. Met officials were then forced to bring down the curtain at around 9:30 p.m., halfway through the second act. About eight minutes passed before security officials ushered out the protesters perched on the balconies, Mr. Gelb said. The crowd jeered the demonstrators and burst into applause when the curtains again opened, but the elation was short-lived.

Persons: Richard Wagner’s “, ”, Peter Gelb, Gelb Organizations: Metropolitan Opera, Met Locations: New York

NEW YORK (AP) — A Ukrainian composer has been commissioned to write an opera about mothers from that country going into Russia to rescue their forcibly detained children. The Metropolitan Opera and Lincoln Center Theater said Monday that 42-year-old Maxim Kolomiiets will compose the work to a libretto by George Brant, whose “Grounded” with composer Jeanine Tesori premieres at the Washington National Opera on Oct. 28 and travels to the Met in the autumn of 2024. Met general manager Peter Gelb hopes the company can present the new work by 2027 or '28. A piano-vocal score and libretto will be written in the next year or two and a workshop prepared. “It's my hope it will end up as a full-blown opera and hopefully on our stage,” Gelb said.

Persons: Maxim Kolomiiets, George Brant, Jeanine Tesori, Peter Gelb, Vladimir Putin, Maria Lvova, Gelb, Olena, Kolomiiets, Met dramaturg Paul Cremo, ” Gelb, Anna Netrebko, Keri, Lynn Wilson, “ Organizations: Metropolitan Opera, Lincoln Center, Washington National Opera, Met, Orchestra, Lynn Wilson . Works Locations: Ukrainian, Russia, Ukraine, The Hague, Russian, New York

☆ The Met Commissions an Opera About Abducted Ukrainian Children
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-11 | by ( Javier C. Hernández | More About Javier C. Hernández | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Metropolitan Opera announced Monday that it had commissioned a new opera about Russia’s abduction and deportation of thousands of Ukrainian children, the latest action by the company to show support for war-torn Ukraine. The work, which will be written by the Ukrainian composer Maxim Kolomiiets, with a libretto by the American playwright George Brant, tells the story of a mother who makes a long and perilous trip to rescue her daughter, who is being held at a camp inside Crimea. While the characters in the opera are fictional, the story is based on real-life accounts by Ukrainian mothers who have described making the harrowing 3,000-mile journey from Ukraine into Russian-occupied territory, and back again, to recover their children from the custody of the Russian authorities. Peter Gelb, the Met’s general manager, said the aim was to “support Ukraine culturally in its fight for freedom.”

Persons: Maxim Kolomiiets, George Brant, Peter Gelb, ” Organizations: Metropolitan Opera Locations: Ukraine, Ukrainian, American, Crimea, Russian

☆ The Soprano Ailyn Pérez Doesn’t Feel Like a Beginner Anymore
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-03 | by ( Joshua Barone | More About Joshua Barone | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

It helped — a lot — that by then she had met Soloman Howard. In 2016, Pérez starred as Juliette in “Roméo,” and her colleagues included Howard, a bass-baritone, as the duke. At one point, Santa Fe Opera asked Pérez to tape herself singing “Song to the Moon” from “Rusalka,” and Howard said, “‘We are going to make a video,’” she recalled. She doesn’t really remember that night — “I was out of my body” — but others do. Gelb, who said, “You can’t fake Verdi,” remembered her sounding “absolutely magnificent.” Nézet-Séguin, called it “a performance for the ages.”

Persons: Peter Gelb, ”, Pérez, “ Simon Boccanegra ”, Soloman Howard, Juliette, “, Howard, Ball, ’ ”, Gelb, Verdi Organizations: Met, Vienna, Santa Fe Opera, Goods Locations: Santa Fe, Chicago, Santa, “

☆ How a Classical Music Power Couple Spend Their Sundays
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-30 | by ( Tammy La Gorce | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Married for 18 years, Keri-Lynn Wilson and Peter Gelb spend a lot of time apart because of their high-profile careers. Ms. Wilson, 55, is a conductor with gigs all over the world. Mr. Gelb, 69, is the general manager of the Metropolitan Opera. Ms. Wilson, who will conduct, had the idea for the performances after Russia invaded Ukraine last year. SOPHISTICATED AND LUXURIOUS Mr. Gelb: I get up between 6 and 6:30.

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