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

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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.