Drew McManus on the orchestra business.
While vaccine rollouts are helping performing arts organizations take a serious look at season planning schedules, furloughed artists and arts admins have yet to see the rays from the light at the end of that tunnel. In order to gather a better understanding of just how deep those economic cracks run, I want to point out two articles of note that came out while I was on holiday break. The 12/26/2020 …
The New York Times’ headline says it all: Met Opera Seeks Pay Cuts in Exchange for Pandemic Paychecks, The Met is offering many employees their first paycheck in months if their unions agree to long-term cuts. If you dig into the 11/20/2020 article by Julia Jacobs you’ll find out more about what’s going on, but it really is that simple. The Metropolitan Opera has offered to start paying many employees who …
In case you aren’t already familiar with the PR crisis unfolding in real-time at Metropolitan Opera, here’s a quick overview: Singer Plácido Domingo, who is facing multiple accusations of sexual misconduct, was scheduled to appear as part of the company’s Macbeth In response to internal and external concerns, Met general manager, Peter Gelb, confirmed Domingo would be appearing and that the allegations lacked enough corroboration. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the response from Met …
Out of the gate, it’s fair to mention that in a labor dispute as contentious as the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s (BSO), there are no “winners,” only shades of loss. Events this week have demonstrated the executive leadership appear to be dug in for the long haul and the musicians have responded in kind. If nothing else, the post economic downturn era has provided some clear patterns on how things may develop. …
Over the weekend, a pair of EU based media outlets reported that Sirius XM’s Met Opera Radio channel has removed all recordings conducted by James Levine. While details are slim, assuming the reports are accurate, one key piece of missing information is why they were removed. Given ongoing litigation, it’s plausible the recordings could have been removed at the insistence of either The Met or Levine. If the latter, we’ll see …