It seems clear that Mr. Gelb came to the MET with the intent to jettison Ms Swenson. The very poor timing of that procedure, the resultant sour publicity and the strong resentment within the company does not surprise given Gelb's well known destuctive mis-management of the Sony classical division. His early MET "triumphs" have been given much media attention and spin but It will certainly be interesting to see how his reign at the MET is regarded a few years hence.
On Apr 8, 6:20 pm, "Norman M. Schwartz" <n...@optonline.net> wrote:
> Gelb stroke me a personal blow; arriving at the Met we found a camera > stationed in our seats.
I have heard two similar stories of patrons ousted from thier carefully chosen seats and unceremoniously dumped in poorer seats on media nights. I suppose that falls under "audience building" at the new MET. Surely, if this sort of thing cannot be avoided it should be handled with care and grace. The patrons should be given advance notification and provided with equal or better seats.
"hooligan_chorister" <wurstfa...@yahoo.com> appears to have caused the following letters to be typed in news:1176073982.026112.123460 @e65g2000hsc.googlegroups.com:
> It seems clear that Mr. Gelb came to the MET with the intent to jettison > Ms Swenson. The very poor timing of that procedure, the resultant sour > publicity and the strong resentment within the company does not surprise > given Gelb's well known destuctive mis-management of the Sony classical > division.
As I've been saying for years.
> His early MET "triumphs" have been given much media attention and spin
Bought and paid for by daddy Arthur Gelb, perhaps?
> but It will certainly be interesting to see how his reign at the MET is > regarded a few years hence.
The Met survived the fumbling bumbler Hugh Southern, and it will survive this preening blowhard Peter Gelb, I hope in the exact same manner.
-- Matthew B. Tepper: WWW, science fiction, classical music, ducks! My personal home page -- http://home.earthlink.net/~oy/index.html My main music page --- http://home.earthlink.net/~oy/berlioz.html To write to me, do for my address what Androcles did for the lion Harrington/Coy is a gay wrestler who won't come out of the closet
"hooligan_chorister" <wurstfa...@yahoo.com> appears to have caused the following letters to be typed in news:1176076885.235122.30490 @o5g2000hsb.googlegroups.com:
> On Apr 8, 6:20 pm, "Norman M. Schwartz" <n...@optonline.net> wrote: >> Gelb stroke me a personal blow; arriving at the Met we found a camera >> stationed in our seats.
> I have heard two similar stories of patrons ousted from thier carefully > chosen seats and unceremoniously dumped in poorer seats on media nights. > I suppose that falls under "audience building" at the new MET. Surely, if > this sort of thing cannot be avoided it should be handled with care and > grace. The patrons should be given advance notification and provided with > equal or better seats.
All it takes is for them to do it to one lawyer with little else to do....
-- Matthew B. Tepper: WWW, science fiction, classical music, ducks! My personal home page -- http://home.earthlink.net/~oy/index.html My main music page --- http://home.earthlink.net/~oy/berlioz.html To write to me, do for my address what Androcles did for the lion Harrington/Coy is a gay wrestler who won't come out of the closet
> Horizontally challenged is out in the world of opera, so it appears. > ;-)
"Pretty" beats out "sings well" in the Gelb playbook. After all, he let Susan Graham go (whom I think is gorgeous, but Gelb may feel threatened by tall women) and kept the Llandaff Llolita.
-- Matthew B. Tepper: WWW, science fiction, classical music, ducks! My personal home page -- http://home.earthlink.net/~oy/index.html My main music page --- http://home.earthlink.net/~oy/berlioz.html To write to me, do for my address what Androcles did for the lion Harrington/Coy is a gay wrestler who won't come out of the closet
> Horizontally challenged is out in the world of opera, so it appears.
She's not that stout. I've seen her in NYC, San Francisco, and Dallas in Offenbach, Mozart, and Handel roles in the past two years.
She is a fine singer and actually quite pretty. I doubt that she has ever been close to as big as some other stars, like Margaret Price or Jessye Norman, to say nothing of Jane Eaglen.
I don't think she has ever sung here in Houston. -- A. Brain
> "hooligan_chorister" <wurstfa...@yahoo.com> appears to have caused the > following letters to be typed in news:1176076885.235122.30490 > @o5g2000hsb.googlegroups.com:
>> On Apr 8, 6:20 pm, "Norman M. Schwartz" <n...@optonline.net> wrote: >>> Gelb stroke me a personal blow; arriving at the Met we found a camera >>> stationed in our seats.
>> I have heard two similar stories of patrons ousted from thier carefully >> chosen seats and unceremoniously dumped in poorer seats on media nights. >> I suppose that falls under "audience building" at the new MET. Surely, if >> this sort of thing cannot be avoided it should be handled with care and >> grace. The patrons should be given advance notification and provided with >> equal or better seats.
> All it takes is for them to do it to one lawyer with little else to do....
There is probably good reason that such lawyer has little else to do, one of my sons is a lawyer but has more profitable things to do.
> -- > Matthew B. Tepper: WWW, science fiction, classical music, ducks! > My personal home page -- http://home.earthlink.net/~oy/index.html > My main music page --- http://home.earthlink.net/~oy/berlioz.html > To write to me, do for my address what Androcles did for the lion > Harrington/Coy is a gay wrestler who won't come out of the closet
> "Matthew B. Tepper" <oyþ@earthlink.net> wrote in message > news:Xns990CC0BF2F041quackandflap@207.217.125.201... >> "hooligan_chorister" <wurstfa...@yahoo.com> appears to have caused the >> following letters to be typed in news:1176076885.235122.30490 >> @o5g2000hsb.googlegroups.com:
>>> On Apr 8, 6:20 pm, "Norman M. Schwartz" <n...@optonline.net> wrote: >>>> Gelb stroke me a personal blow; arriving at the Met we found a camera >>>> stationed in our seats.
>>> I have heard two similar stories of patrons ousted from thier carefully >>> chosen seats and unceremoniously dumped in poorer seats on media nights. >>> I suppose that falls under "audience building" at the new MET. Surely, >>> if >>> this sort of thing cannot be avoided it should be handled with care and >>> grace. The patrons should be given advance notification and provided >>> with >>> equal or better seats.
>> All it takes is for them to do it to one lawyer with little else to >> do....
> There is probably good reason that such lawyer has little else to do, one > of my sons is a lawyer but has more profitable things to do.
I should have added that we hope to renew our subscription *and* with yet better seats.
>> -- >> Matthew B. Tepper: WWW, science fiction, classical music, ducks! >> My personal home page -- http://home.earthlink.net/~oy/index.html >> My main music page --- http://home.earthlink.net/~oy/berlioz.html >> To write to me, do for my address what Androcles did for the lion >> Harrington/Coy is a gay wrestler who won't come out of the closet
>> "Matthew B. Tepper" <oyþ@earthlink.net> wrote in message >> news:Xns990CC0BF2F041quackandflap@207.217.125.201... >>> "hooligan_chorister" <wurstfa...@yahoo.com> appears to have caused the >>> following letters to be typed in news:1176076885.235122.30490 >>> @o5g2000hsb.googlegroups.com:
>>>> On Apr 8, 6:20 pm, "Norman M. Schwartz" <n...@optonline.net> wrote: >>>>> Gelb stroke me a personal blow; arriving at the Met we found a >>>>> camera stationed in our seats.
>>>> I have heard two similar stories of patrons ousted from thier >>>> carefully chosen seats and unceremoniously dumped in poorer seats on >>>> media nights. I suppose that falls under "audience building" at the >>>> new MET. Surely, if this sort of thing cannot be avoided it should be >>>> handled with care and grace. The patrons should be given advance >>>> notification and provided with equal or better seats.
>>> All it takes is for them to do it to one lawyer with little else to >>> do....
>> There is probably good reason that such lawyer has little else to do, >> one of my sons is a lawyer but has more profitable things to do.
> I should have added that we hope to renew our subscription *and* with > yet better seats.
Have you written to complain?
-- Matthew B. Tepper: WWW, science fiction, classical music, ducks! My personal home page -- http://home.earthlink.net/~oy/index.html My main music page --- http://home.earthlink.net/~oy/berlioz.html To write to me, do for my address what Androcles did for the lion Harrington/Coy is a gay wrestler who won't come out of the closet
>>> Horizontally challenged is out in the world of opera, so it appears. >>> ;-)
>> "Pretty" beats out "sings well" in the Gelb playbook. After all, he >> let Susan Graham go (whom I think is gorgeous, but Gelb may feel >> threatened by tall women) and kept the Llandaff Llolita.
> There once was a Welsh senorita > Who caused Matt to dance istampita. > Such perfervid dreaming > Of industry scheming, > And slagging the Llandaff Llolita!
Not bad! ;--)
-- Matthew B. Tepper: WWW, science fiction, classical music, ducks! My personal home page -- http://home.earthlink.net/~oy/index.html My main music page --- http://home.earthlink.net/~oy/berlioz.html To write to me, do for my address what Androcles did for the lion Harrington/Coy is a gay wrestler who won't come out of the closet
hooligan_chorister wrote: > On Apr 8, 6:20 pm, "Norman M. Schwartz" <n...@optonline.net> wrote: >> Gelb stroke me a personal blow; arriving at the Met we found a camera >> stationed in our seats.
> I have heard two similar stories of patrons ousted from thier > carefully chosen seats and unceremoniously dumped in poorer seats on > media nights. I suppose that falls under "audience building" at the > new MET. Surely, if this sort of thing cannot be avoided it should be > handled with care and grace. The patrons should be given advance > notification and provided with equal or better seats.
They should definitely receive a personal call in advance, along with a gift - free tickets to a future performance, dinner certificate at a nearby restaurant, something.
>>> "Matthew B. Tepper" <oyþ@earthlink.net> wrote in message >>> news:Xns990CC0BF2F041quackandflap@207.217.125.201... >>>> "hooligan_chorister" <wurstfa...@yahoo.com> appears to have caused the >>>> following letters to be typed in news:1176076885.235122.30490 >>>> @o5g2000hsb.googlegroups.com:
>>>>> On Apr 8, 6:20 pm, "Norman M. Schwartz" <n...@optonline.net> wrote: >>>>>> Gelb stroke me a personal blow; arriving at the Met we found a >>>>>> camera stationed in our seats.
>>>>> I have heard two similar stories of patrons ousted from thier >>>>> carefully chosen seats and unceremoniously dumped in poorer seats on >>>>> media nights. I suppose that falls under "audience building" at the >>>>> new MET. Surely, if this sort of thing cannot be avoided it should be >>>>> handled with care and grace. The patrons should be given advance >>>>> notification and provided with equal or better seats.
>>>> All it takes is for them to do it to one lawyer with little else to >>>> do....
>>> There is probably good reason that such lawyer has little else to do, >>> one of my sons is a lawyer but has more profitable things to do.
>> I should have added that we hope to renew our subscription *and* with >> yet better seats.
> Have you written to complain?
We spoke with a manager on the telephone and he offered us complementary seats for another opera (unfortunately at a date we couldn't attend) and he said he would do what he could to improve our seats for the next year. Apparently he knew how to cool us down a bit. (Yes Steve, they did do something along those lines.)
<ste...@stevedemena.com> wrote: >> I have heard two similar stories of patrons ousted from thier >> carefully chosen seats and unceremoniously dumped in poorer seats on >> media nights. I suppose that falls under "audience building" at the >> new MET. Surely, if this sort of thing cannot be avoided it should be >> handled with care and grace. The patrons should be given advance >> notification and provided with equal or better seats.
>They should definitely receive a personal call in advance, along with a >gift - free tickets to a future performance, dinner certificate at a nearby >restaurant, something.
When a Philly Orchestra soloist cancelled recently, all the subscribers got calls to let them know the program was being changed. So it shouldn't be that hard to do.
- Sol L. Siegel, Philadelphia, PA "It may take a village to raise a child - but it only takes one idiot to burn down the village."
The Metropolitan Opera, larger than life, is coming to a theater near you. Not physically, in the sense of the old tours that for decades brought grand opera to otherwise opera-bereft American cities, Dallas included. No, in the form of live, high-definition broadcasts from New York's Lincoln Center to movie theaters all across the country.
All six productions will be subsequently telecast in PBS' Great Performances series.
The Met's theater lineup Dec. 30 The Magic Flute (abbreviated and sung in English)
Jan. 6 Bellini's I puritani
Jan. 13 The First Emperor (Tan Dun's world premiere production)
Feb. 24 Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin
March 24 Rossini's The Barber of Seville
April 28 Puccini's Il trittico (comprising Il tabarro, Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi)
All performances begin at 12:30 p.m. at Cinemark Tinseltown Plano, 3800 Dallas Parkway, Plano. Adults $18, children $15. www.fathomevents.com. That's in addition to the Met's venerable Saturday afternoon live radio broadcasts, which are aired here by WRR-FM (101). And in addition to four live performances a week carried by Sirius Satellite Radio's Channel 85, alternating with operas from the Met's radio archives dating back to 1931. And in addition to live audio streaming of select performances on the Met's Web site, www.metopera.org.
The driving force behind the new media initiatives is the Met's new general manager, Peter Gelb. He took over the job in August, after seven months of shadowing his predecessor, Joseph Volpe. Before the Met, Mr. Gelb, son of former New York Times managing editor Arthur Gelb and writer Barbara Gelb, headed Columbia Artists Management's video division and the Sony Classical record label.
"One of the goals I had as soon as I arrived at the Met was to get our unions to agree to a much more flexible approach," Mr. Gelb says by phone, "so we could take advantage of every possible technology that has emerged. One of them is high-definition transmission to movie theaters, which a colleague of mine suggested. She had used it to launch a pop album.
"The technology to do this has become available in movie theaters only in the last year or two. It's an exciting way for the Met to communicate with its national and international constituency."
Hardly had Mr. Gelb settled into the general director's office when the Met's media office started spewing almost weekly announcements of new initiatives: new repertory and new productions, as well as new technologies. Such eager outreach would have been unimaginable from the Met only a year ago. The Met's attitude always seemed to be, "If you have to ask, you may not belong."
But right after 9/11, the Met suffered a 10 percent drop in attendance. Since then, both visitors and critics have noticed swaths of empty seats even for popular operas.
According to Mr. Gelb, overall full-price ticket sales last season were only 77 percent of capacity. Adding student and other discounted tickets, the seat count edged into the 80th percentile.
"Historically, when the Met was performing at its best, it's been in the 90th percentile or better," Mr. Gelb says.
"And when I was appointed, there was a survey that indicated that the average age of the Met subscriber - this was 2 ½ years ago - was 65. Of even greater concern was that five years earlier the average age was 60. That certainly did not bode well for the future.
"The Met was operating on a model that was successful in the '80s and '90s, but no longer was working. There had been very little change over the last 20 years."
To book the singers, conductors, directors and designers they want, opera companies, especially the biggest ones, usually plan productions years in advance. But Mr. Gelb managed to make some artistic statements onstage early in the 2006-07 season.
One was a provocative Anthony Minghella staging of Madama Butterfly , its opening performance simulcast on giant screens in Times Square as well as in front of the Met itself. The production got mixed reviews, but it certainly got noticed. And a new Barber of Seville, starring dazzlers Juan Diego Flórez and Diana Damrau, had, according to New York magazine's Peter G. Davis, "much musical distinction and plenty of vocal fizz."
Mr. Gelb even managed to get the Barber production previewed on the Letterman show, although the studio performance was messy.
For the future, Mr. Gelb says his goals include "bringing in great theater directors and doubling the number of new productions each season."
"So many of the world's great theater directors, older ones, too, haven't worked at the Met."
He mentions Peter Stein (who will do a new Boris Godunov in 2011), Luc Bondy and Patrice Chéreau, and plans for a co-production of Leos Janácek's rarely performed House of the Dead.
Mr. Gelb is no fan of the radical productions, often dismissed as "Eurotrash," popular with some stage directors. But neither is he willing to rest on comfortable laurels.
"For opera to continue to succeed," Mr. Gelb says, "we have to demonstrate that it is as worthwhile and enjoyable an experience as any other art form. We have several obstacles to overcome: the length of the art form, and the fact that the pieces are not new. And the great composers whose works have survived the tests of time have to have new productions, to have a modern sensibility and connection. It's not necessarily a modern look, but a modern aesthetic approach."
> On Sun, 08 Apr 2007 23:48:52 -0700, Steve de Mena ><ste...@stevedemena.com> wrote:
>>> I have heard two similar stories of patrons ousted from thier carefully >>> chosen seats and unceremoniously dumped in poorer seats on media nights. >>> I suppose that falls under "audience building" at the new MET. Surely, if >>> this sort of thing cannot be avoided it should be handled with care and >>> grace. The patrons should be given advance notification and provided with >>> equal or better seats.
>> They should definitely receive a personal call in advance, along with a >> gift - free tickets to a future performance, dinner certificate at a >> nearby restaurant, something.
> When a Philly Orchestra soloist cancelled recently, all the subscribers got > calls to let them know the program was being changed. So it shouldn't be > that hard to do.
That's easily explained: James Undercofler isn't a pompous blowhard spoiled son of a powerful newspaper editor; he cares more about respecting the subscribers than issuing reams of self-congratulatory press releases; and he's more concerned with keeping the orchestra running than with hiring only pretty players, or by passing off ideas from the Stokowski era as his own.
-- Matthew B. Tepper: WWW, science fiction, classical music, ducks! My personal home page -- http://home.earthlink.net/~oy/index.html My main music page --- http://home.earthlink.net/~oy/berlioz.html To write to me, do for my address what Androcles did for the lion Harrington/Coy is a gay wrestler who won't come out of the closet
Sol L. Siegel wrote: > On Sun, 08 Apr 2007 23:48:52 -0700, Steve de Mena > <ste...@stevedemena.com> wrote:
>>> I have heard two similar stories of patrons ousted from thier >>> carefully chosen seats and unceremoniously dumped in poorer seats on >>> media nights. I suppose that falls under "audience building" at the >>> new MET. Surely, if this sort of thing cannot be avoided it should be >>> handled with care and grace. The patrons should be given advance >>> notification and provided with equal or better seats. >> They should definitely receive a personal call in advance, along with a >> gift - free tickets to a future performance, dinner certificate at a nearby >> restaurant, something.
> When a Philly Orchestra soloist cancelled recently, all the > subscribers got calls to let them know the program was being changed. > So it shouldn't be that hard to do.
When I saw the Israel Philharmonic at Disney Hall a couple of months ago, I got a phone call, postcard *and* email from the LA Phil, informing me that I could not park in the underground garage (it was closed-off for security reasons). I took my Mom, who has trouble standing for a long time, and it was awkward as I dropped her off right by the hall and parked across the street. I assumed she could go inside and sit down. But they only let people in to the lobby who had a ticket, which is not the normal policy. (I had the tickets). Luckily there was one solitary chair outside by the door she could sit in.
In article <461b5066$0$9938$4c368...@roadrunner.com>, Steve de Mena says...
>When I saw the Israel Philharmonic at Disney Hall >a couple of months ago, I got a phone call, >postcard *and* email from the LA Phil, informing >me that I could not park in the underground garage >(it was closed-off for security reasons).
We recently received a *transatlantic* phone call (from the Haymarket Theatre in London) to tell us that the performance we were to attend had been cancelled. Not bad....
<ste...@stevedemena.com> wrote: >When I saw the Israel Philharmonic at Disney Hall >a couple of months ago, I got a phone call, >postcard *and* email from the LA Phil, informing >me that I could not park in the underground garage >(it was closed-off for security reasons).
Going back to the 1970s, I recall having to open up my binocular case for an Israeli security guy before an IPO performance at the Academy of Music.
- Sol L. Siegel, Philadelphia, PA "It may take a village to raise a child - but it only takes one idiot to burn down the village."
> On Tue, 10 Apr 2007 01:52:51 -0700, Steve de Mena
> <ste...@stevedemena.com> wrote: > >When I saw the Israel Philharmonic at Disney Hall > >a couple of months ago, I got a phone call, > >postcard *and* email from the LA Phil, informing > >me that I could not park in the underground garage > >(it was closed-off for security reasons).
> Going back to the 1970s, I recall having to open up my binocular case > for an Israeli security guy before an IPO performance at the Academy > of Music.
> - Sol L. Siegel, Philadelphia, PA > "It may take a village to raise a child - but it only takes one idiot > to burn down the village."
Here in Chicago the Harris Theater had security guards checking all patrons with metal detectors and requesting all bags to be opened for inspection when Barenboim was in town with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra.
> son of a powerful newspaper editor; he cares more about respecting the > subscribers than issuing reams of self-congratulatory press releases; and > he's more concerned with keeping the orchestra running than with hiring only > pretty players, or by passing off ideas from the Stokowski era as his own.
