Peter Gelb

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Peter Gelb (born 1953[1]) is an American arts administrator. He is currently General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.

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[edit] Early life

Gelb is the son of Arthur Gelb and Barbara Gelb. Arthur is the onetime Managing Editor of the New York Times.

While in high school, Gelb began his association with the Metropolitan Opera as a part-time usher. Having started in the arts management world at 17 as office boy to Sol Hurok, Gelb himself became manager of Vladimir Horowitz during the last phase of Horowitz's career. In 1978 he began as publicity director for the Boston Symphony Orchestra. It has been alleged that at that time Arthur gave his son's employer excessive coverage in the New York Times to the extent that the Boston band received more column inches than the paper's hometown New York Philharmonic [2]. A 1990 article in Variety magazine reported that "[c]lients of Arthur Gelb's son, Peter, an agent who represented many classical musicians, were said by staffers at the time to be given what one described as 'ridiculous overcoverage'".[3]

Gelb joined Ronald Wilford's Columbia Artists Management (CAMI) organization in 1981, making short films about classical musicians. Back at the Metropolitan Opera, he served as executive producer of the "The Metropolitan Presents", the Met's series of televised opera broadcasts, for six years starting in 1988.

[edit] Career at Sony Classical

In 1993 Gelb became head of Sony Classical Records's American division after Sony acquired CAMI video. Within one year he had been appointed head of Sony Classical worldwide. While at Sony Classical, Gelb pursued a controversial strategy of emphasizing crossover music over mainstream classical repertoire[4] Examples include cellist Yo Yo Ma, who was encouraged to record country music; electronic composer Vangelis, who recorded choral symphony Mythodea; and Charlotte Church, a pop artist who started her career as a classical singer.[5].

[edit] Metropolitan Opera

Gelb became the new General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera, taking over from Joseph Volpe, on August 1, 2006. In statements of his intentions, he has emphasized that, even after 35 years as music director of the Met, James Levine will be welcome to continue "for as long as he wants".

Since his tenure began in 2006, the Met has enjoyed greatly improved ticket sales. Hit new productions of "Madama Butterfly" directed by Anthony Minghella; "The Barber of Seville" by Bartlett Sher; and Tan Dun's new opera "The First Emperor" directed by Zhang Yimou have sold out their entire runs.

Additionally, the Met has become the first art institution in the world to offer HD broadcasts of its Operas to be viewed in movie theaters around the world, allowing anyone on the globe to view a stunning live opera performance from a cinema, or on HDTV. Most remarkable was Gelb's ability to get this program off the ground and into theaters a mere three months after his appointment.

Gelb has also asserted the importance of his combining the roles of financial and general management with that of being overall creative director. He plans to stage more productions each year but perhaps, in an era of computer-generated visual effects, not to need to have "tons of scenery" built and retained for each new production. These are among other plans for drawing in new (and younger) audiences without deterring the older opera lovers, the wealth and patronage of some of whom sustains the most lavishly privately-financed opera house in the world.

Other ideas include an annual "family-oriented" presentation at Christmas time, and collaborations with the Vivian Beaumont Theater of Lincoln Center to develop newer musical works with musicians such as Wynton Marsalis, Rachel Portman and Rufus Wainwright[6]. Gelb has announced a commission for a new opera from Osvaldo Golijov, tentatively scheduled for the 2010-2011 season[7].

[edit] Personal Life

Gelb is married to the conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson. He has two children from a previous marriage.

[edit] Controversy

Mr. Gelb's career has not been without controversy. His career at Sony coincided with the decline in sales of classical recordings and a retrenchment in new classical recording by the major labels. Whether Mr. Gelb's promotion of crossover and soundtrack releases over more serious classical repertoire reflected this decline or contributed to it has caused considerable debate. He was criticized for failing to make available much of the library of classical performances Sony inherited from the Columbia Records catalog. Regarding repertoire choices, the writer has quoted Gelb as saying that he would "rather lose a million on a movie score than make $10,000 on a small shit" (referring to mainstream classical releases, which tend to make small amounts of money year after year) and , "I know what good music is, I just don’t want to record it."[8]

When Mr. Gelb was replaced by Gilbert Hetherwick as the head of the newly-merged Sony BMG Masterworks in 2005, Hetherwick said that "I think that making records that are basically pop records and calling them classical is in some ways surrendering." [9]

Mr. Gelb's history at Sony caused anxiety among critics when he was appointed to take over as General Manager at the Metropolitan Opera. He has responded to fears that he would dilute the Met's artistic standards as he seeks a wider audience for the company. “I think what I’m doing is exactly what the Met engaged me to do, which is build bridges to a broader public. This is not about dumbing down the Met, it’s just making it accessible."[10]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Metropolitan Opera press release, 30 October 2004.
  2. ^ Norman Lebrecht, Who Killed Classical Music?, pp. 185-6
  3. ^ "Culture shock at New York Times", Variety, 30 May 1990, p. 1, quoted in Norman Lebrecht, Who Killed Classical Music?, pp. 186
  4. ^ Steven Winn, "Tuning up for the 21st century." San Francisco Chronicle, 16 July 2002.
  5. ^ Norman Lebrecht, "How the Met was fixed". La Scena Musicale, 11 November 2004.
  6. ^ Rupert Christiansen, "Met's new man is aiming for the stars". Telegraph, 24 June 2006.
  7. ^ Anthony Tommasini, "New Operas at the Met: What Works?" New York Times, 11 January 2007.
  8. ^ Norman Lebrecht, "How the Met was fixed". La Scena Musicale, 11 November 2004.
  9. ^ Martin Cullingford, "Sony BMG announce new classical division". Gramophone, 13 April 2005.
  10. ^ Daniel J. Wakin, "The Multiplex as Opera House: Will They Serve Popcorn?".New York Times, September 7, 2006.


[edit] External links

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