![]() But on the other hand, there would be something weird about a major American opera magazine not reviewing Met productions. It’s true: there is something weird about a publication connected with the Met reviewing Met productions. Yet, strange to say, Gelb has a point – and in making it, he (perhaps unintentionally) underscored the fundamental conundrum of the Met Opera Guild’s glossy magazine. How can readers be expected to take seriously any favourable reviews of Met productions that might appear in future issues now that everyone knows how much influence Gelb can wield – and now that we’ve seen that he’s quite willing to wield it if he can get away with it? Gelb has rung a bell that can’t readily be unrung. His intervention – however quickly reversed – has harmed Opera News’s credibility. It’s now perfectly clear that Gelb, as the Met’s GM, has the authority to dictate editorial policy to the magazine. Through his ham-fisted action, he laid bare that power structure that ultimately controls Opera News. In response to the public outcry over the issue, he said, “I think I made a mistake.” (See here.) Gelb reversed his previous position vis-à-vis Opera News, announcing that the magazine would continue to review Met productions. So Gelb’s response to criticism from Opera News is hardly surprising.īut yesterday something surprising did happen. Under pressure, Met Futures was taken down. ![]() And last year, the Met took offense to another website, called Met Futures, which attempted to predict upcoming Met casts. Not to long ago, he strong-armed New York radio station WQXR into deleting a critique of the Met from its website. ![]() OPERA NEWS MAGAZINE FREEGelb has made his views on free speech known on previous occasions. ![]() the Opera Guild) should publish a magazine that passes judgment on the company’s productions. (See here.) And Gelb stood up to implicitly take credit for the decision, stating that he wasn’t happy that an organization whose purpose is to support the Met (i.e. On May 21, the New York Times reported that Opera News would no longer review Met productions. That review was apparently the straw that broke the back of Met general manager Peter Gelb. Readers opened the magazine’s May issue to read a pointed criticism of the Met’s current regime: “The public is becoming more dispirited each season by the pretentious and woefully misguided, misdirected productions foisted on them.” And in a review of the Met’s production of Götterdämmerung, an Opera News critic wrote, “The haphazard staging had the effect of obscuring the piece itself it was hard to figure out from the visual evidence what kind of opera this was.” In recent months it’s been anything but a vehicle for pro-Met puffery. ![]()
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