CLASSICAL & OPERA: Aria force

Photo: Dario Acosta/Metropolitan Opera

Peter Gelb, the 16th general manager in the Metropolitan Opera’s long, illustrious history, has never been one to shrink from a challenge. “Just filling the shoes of the general manager of the Met the way this job has traditionally been defined would have been quite enough,” he says, sitting on a borrowed chair in a spartan office. “But I’ve made it tougher. I worry about that in the same way I would worry about any new challenge. That’s the sort of neurotic fuel that keeps someone like me alert.”

Nonetheless, Gelb radiates a genial calm, even while power tools chirp and whistle outside his walls as if to underscore his point. A crew is constructing the Arnold and Marie Schwartz Gallery Met, which will display contemporary art inspired by the company’s stage offerings. It’s one of many new enterprises Gelb (who grew up two subway stops from the Met, where he ushered in high school) hopes will reinvigorate the venerable company. Other projects announced at or since Gelb’s first press conference this past spring include six new productions, an infusion of new directorial vision, and plans to make the Met’s performances available via television, movie-theater simulcasts and the Internet. He’s already managed to hammer out the -myriad touchy negotiations to help make that last ambition a reality.

“In every job I’ve ever had, I’ve tried to raise the bar; not change for change’s sake, but because it was necessary,” Gelb says. His efforts haven’t always been popular: In his last job, as head of the Sony Classical record label, Gelb, now 52, attracted criticism for favoring crossover fare such as James Horner’s Titanic soundtrack and Charlotte Church. “In this case, change is necessary because of all the challenges that the Met—and opera in general—faces to maintain a place in contemporary culture,” he says. “I have staked out a huge area, a series of initiatives I believe are necessary to meet the challenges of an aging art form, a gently declining box office and the need to raise more money because of rising costs—some of which I’m adding to because of the increase in new productions, which I believe are absolutely essential.”

So essential, in fact, that one of Gelb’s first moves was to chuck the traditional patchwork opening-night gala and replace it with a striking staging of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly by film director Anthony Minghella. The production was unveiled last year in London and met with mixed reviews, but proved highly popular with audi-ences. In a measure that was guaranteed to raise eyebrows and pulses, the Met recently -announced that the production’s final dress rehear-sal would by open to the public free of charge, as part of the company’s first-ever open house on September 22.

There’s a lot more where that came from. In November, the Tony Award–winning team of Bartlett Sher and Michael Yeargan (The Light in the Piazza) stages Rossini’s The Barber of Seville. In December, The First Emperor, a new opera by composer Tan Dun and colibrettist Ha Jin, will be helmed by film director Zhang Yimou (House of Flying Daggers, Hero). Future seasons are dotted with the tantalizing prospects of Janacek’s From the House of the Dead, directed by French auteur Patrice Chéreau, as well as a complete Ring cycle designed by Canadian visionary Robert Lepage.

Given a reputation for conservatism on the part of Met audiences and sponsors alike, offering so many new visions might seem like too great a risk. Not so, says Gelb. “I believe that if the primary guideline is theatrical productions of great quality honoring musical traditions and standards that are already so high, there’s no way it’s going to alienate the current audience,” he asserts. “At the same time, it will attract a new audience.”

Gelb has also devoted attention to the caliber of the company’s guest conductors. Under music director James Levine, the Met Orchestra has acquired a reputation as one of the world’s finest ensembles; even so, superstar conductors have been engaged only rarely in recent -decades. Gelb’s booking of Riccardo Muti, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Daniel Barenboim and Antonio Pappano is one more sign that this impresario means business. “Because of the greater concentration of new productions, we’re going to have a greater concentration of great singers, and they’ll spend more time here than in the past,” Gelb explains. “It’s important that we deal with great conductors in the same way. I’m aware that there is an international buzz among singers, conductors and directors about how the Met is actually going after new people for the first time in some years. We’re not sitting back and waiting for artists to come to us.”

Madama Butterfly opens the Metropolitan Opera’s new season on September 25.

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