Damn You, Peter Gelb

Lincoln Center Fountain

Photo by Lisa Hirsch

You might have heard the sentiment in the title from me before. This time, the reason for the table-pounding and eye-rolling is pretty simple: the Met, which furloughed about a thousand people in March, including the orchestra and chorus, and hasn't paid them since, is now looking for substantial pay cuts from those employees, in exchange for paying them "up to $1,500 a week."

In other words, they're trying to break the unions.

And today the organization had the goddamn nerve to send this:

In this most unusual of holiday seasons, we are reminded of the importance of family, togetherness, and the arts, all of which have been so terribly disrupted this year. 

As a special Thanksgiving greeting, we would like to share with you the below video featuring students from across the country, assembled virtually by the Met’s education department and given a chance to sing together at a time when in-person choirs have been made impossible. The musical selection comes from Beethoven’s Fidelio, which would have been part of the 2020–21 season, and the performance celebrates the power of music to create a sense of community and resilience in the face of adversity, while looking forward to the day when we can all be reunited.

Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at the Met. We wish you and your families the very best. 

Best wishes from all of except, maybe, from the people we haven't bothered to pay since March. Just to remind you: it's not the responsibility of the chorus, orchestra, stagehands, ushers, dressers, custodians, makeup artists, and other employees on the theatrical side to keep the Met on a good financial footing. They're not responsible for budgeting, fundraising, or the administration of those funds. They aren't the people responsible for the Met's poor ticket sales, immense budget, and failure to build a sufficient endowment, and they're not the people who should be punished for the failures of the people who do have the responsibility to raise money, spend it wisely, and sell tickets.