Kitten Pics Or News About Peter Gelb? It’s Your Choice.

There isn’t much that will distract me from blogging but adopting a 12-week old kitten is decidedly one of those exceptions to the rule. Consequently, you have two choices for today’s post…

Door #1: Peter Gelb News

For those of you who absolutely, positively must have a suitable culture blog topic, you should swing by two articles by Norman Lebrecht. Never one to mince words, Lebrecht focuses his attention on The Metropolitan Opera and its General Manager, Peter Gelb.

Standpoint Magazine published an article written by Lebrecht that takes an unfiltered look at The Met’s ticket woes.

Twenty years ago, the Met was running at 90 per cent. Twenty years earlier, you could not buy or beg a seat most nights, such was the crush of seasonal subscribers and the force of their loyalty. So what has gone wrong? And, critically — for this is a crisis — what can be done about it?

Peter Gelb, the Met’s general manager, puts up three defences, equally flawed.

The second article is a post from Lebrecht’s blog, SlippeDisc.com, where he publishes a video copy of Gelb’s recent Opera America speech.

[Gelb] insists that Live from the Met has made singers perform better. He goes on to claim victory in union wage negotiations, the first in Met history.

All I can say is you do not want to miss the comments, most of which provide some fascinating rebuttals to Gelb’s claims.

Door #2: Kitten Pics

Taggart
Sleeping cuteness.
Awake cuteness.
Awake cuteness.
#NotAfraidOfHeights
#NotAfraidOfHeights
Taggart vs. Don Juan
Kitten vs. core repertoire.

About Drew McManus

"I hear that every time you show up to work with an orchestra, people get fired." Those were the first words out of an executive's mouth after her board chair introduced us. That executive is now a dear colleague and friend but the day that consulting contract began with her orchestra, she was convinced I was a hatchet-man brought in by the board to clean house.

I understand where the trepidation comes from as a great deal of my consulting and technology provider work for arts organizations involves due diligence, separating fact from fiction, interpreting spin, as well as performance review and oversight. So yes, sometimes that work results in one or two individuals "aggressively embracing career change" but far more often than not, it reinforces and clarifies exactly what works and why.

In short, it doesn't matter if you know where all the bodies are buried if you can't keep your own clients out of the ground, and I'm fortunate enough to say that for more than 15 years, I've done exactly that for groups of all budget size from Qatar to Kathmandu.

For fun, I write a daily blog about the orchestra business, provide a platform for arts insiders to speak their mind, keep track of what people in this business get paid, help write a satirical cartoon about orchestra life, hack the arts, and love a good coffee drink.

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