Reprinted with permission from Current, the newspaper about public TV and radio, Oct. 23, 2006 | Current.org

production for the powerful Columbia Art- ists Management agency and the Met; and Current Q&A | Peter Gelb president of Sony Classical for 10 years. Along the way he produced the Emmy-win- ning Vladimir Horowitz: The Last Romantic, Media veteran brings the Peabody-winning four-part television series Marsalis on Music, and Recording The Producers: A Musical Romp with Mel Brooks, among many other programs. wary revolution to For this Q&A, Gelb spoke with Wesley Horner, a longtime producer of national programs for public radio and television, and a fortress of tradition Current Editor SteveSteve Behrens. This is an edited transcript. n the 1980s, Peter Gelb produced 25 ing. Metropolitan Opera broadcasts for PBS. ■ Starting with the Met’s season pre- Current: As an institution, public broadcast- I Now, as the Met’s general manager, he miere last month, Sirius Satellite Radio ing is much younger than the Metropolitan runs the red-carpeted center of the opera Channel 85 is all-Met, carrying about four Opera, but it’s also trying various things to world. live operas a week (including the Saturday invigorate itself and bring in younger audi- The fi rst media guy to run the hallowed matinee that airs on many pubradio sta- ences, as you are. Could you discuss your New York institution has begun an ambi- tions) plus hundreds of taped operas from strategy? tious but carefully modulated makeover of the the Met’s archives. Live operas also will be Met. He’s putting its operas on more media streamed on the Internet by RealNetworks. Peter Gelb: Our challenge is to fi nd the platforms than ever before but using electron- ■ Starting with an abridged 90-minute vehicles to breathe dynamic new life into ic media to reproduce the gilded in-theater Magic Flute on Dec. 30, six Met productions the aging art form of opera and to see if it’s experience. He’s bringing in a new breed of will be transmitted, live and high-def, to possible to broaden the audience and make it directors for fresh staging but relying largely specially equipped movie theaters around the younger at the same time. on the beloved music of the past. world. The same shows will come to PBS a We were successful in the short term with Hired two years ago, Gelb was off to a month later. our season’s initial offering, a new produc- running start in August when he took charge. “We want to make the Met as available tion of Madama Butterfl y. It captivated the ■ The Met’s unions agreed to accept roy- electronically to its followers as the Yankees imagination of the public through transmis- alties from new-media exposure rather than are to theirs,” Gelb has said in interviews. sion to giant screens in Times Square and in demand up-front payments, bucking a tradi- Gelb had a long apprenticeship for the the Lincoln Center plaza and distribution of tion that had restricted the company’s media job, serving as an offi ce boy for famed im- 5,000 dress-rehearsal tickets. outings to a waning presence in broadcast- presario Sol Hurok; chief of in-house video That was in strong contrast with the Met the public has known in recent years. What made it possible, so it wasn’t just hype, was the artistic integrity of this wonderful production by Anthony Minghella, which demonstrated that one does not have to compromise the musical qualities of opera to achieve theatrical greatness.

Let’s begin with a blunt question: Met Opera broadcasts were on public radio before it was public radio and have been on public television for decades. Why does the Met Opera still belong on public radio and televi- sion?

The question is not whether it belongs but how to present it in a manner that is ap- propriate for modern listening and viewing habits. The fact that it belongs has been long established. A hundred television broadcasts have commanded signifi cant audiences on PBS over the years. The radio broadcasts Opening more than an opera season at the Metropolitan Opera: In a Current Q&A, the company’s have a faithful audience of 2.5 million dur- new general manager, Peter Gelb, tells what he’s doing—and certainly not doing—about chal- ing the season, December through May. lenges facing the institution and the artform. Pictured: a new Met production of Madama But- By working with the world’s greatest terfl y. (Photo: Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera.) directors, I’m trying to make the theatrical experience in the opera house equal to the broadcasts feel more immediate and live. Met’s already-high musical standards. That will be accomplished by having more live reports, live interviews. The TV and radio broadcasts have been in the same format for a very long time. Could Some in public television will tell you that you talk about how the Met might shift its releases in other media only hurt the case production values to more contemporary for Met Opera broadcasts on PBS. standards? They should talk to the president of PBS, What’s unique about grand opera is that it Paula Kerger, who was extremely enthusias- is a real true spectator experience. When a tic. She and her top aides, John Boland and great tenor has to hit his high C, it’s an event John Wilson, are unanimously enthusiastic that goes beyond dramatic interpretation and about our plans. It was over breakfast with enters the realm of athleticism. Paula Kerger last spring that I fi rst met her Our approach for the broadcasts is to treat and told her about my plans. them as live spectacles. We will imbue the She saw this as a way PBS could embrace broadcasts with the on-the-scene perspec- opera broadcasts once again. She immedi- tive you get with sporting events. We’re not ately suggested cross-promotional possibili- creating movies here. We’re creating a portal ties between the theater exhibitions and the to live musical theater. public television pledge drives. The publicity There will always be certain limitations in “We’re not creating movies here,” says and excitement generated by the live show- reproducing live events on television. Operas Gelb. “We’re creating a portal to live musi- ings in theaters—one live showing and a re- are meant to be viewed from the audience in cal theater.” He compares broadcasts to peat for limited audiences—is only going to the theater. They’re not staged for televi- sports shows, bringing the spectacle from serve as a promotional tool for the broadcast sion. Camera positions are limited because Lincoln Center, complete with live dressing that comes afterwards. we don’t want to disturb the audience in the room interviews. (Photo: Steve Behrens, theater with cameras moving on dollies or Current.) So your paths didn’t cross when you both cranes. worked at the Met?

Would it be economically viable to put on an Let’s talk about radio. There are program She was in the Met’s development offi ce extra performance just for the cameras—so directors who believe opera belongs in some in the early ’80s, when I was at the Boston you could use cranes, for instance? daypart other than Saturday afternoons, but Symphony and at Columbia Artists Manage- the Met offers its productions only for live ment. Not in the opera house, because there’s no broadcast. Is live broadcast non-negotiable time. We have performances going on all the for you—take it live or don’t take it at all? Let’s say this 25-year-old couple from out time. of town is planning a trip to New York. They However, all of the six programs we’re That’s been the position of the Met, and I have tickets to Letterman. They’re seeing a producing this year will be shot in high-def, think it’s a good position. Clearly the public Broadway show and planning to stand out- and we’re thinking about adding unobtrusive wants it. There are 2.5 million people in the side The Today Show. What would they have robotic cameras that might track along the U.S. and Canada who are listening live. heard on a Met Opera broadcast on public pit rail, for example. radio or seen on PBS that would make them Now that the live Met is available on Sirius want to come to a performance at the Met? It’s notable that the Met is producing Julie and on the Web, does that reduce the need Taymor’s abridged, 90-minute version of The for public radio to carry it? At the moment, it’s what they’ve heard Magic Flute. Though many hard-core opera about Madama Butterfl y. It’s been in Vogue, fans hate abridgements, do you see opportu- The need is established by whether the sta- Us magazine and all the other media. Our nities for shorter operas, new or old? tions satisfy their audiences. That’s up to the red carpet on opening night was fi lled with local stations. movie celebrities. The Met for the fi rst time It’s not our intention. The Magic Flute is is in the consciousness of New Yorkers in a unique. It has been abridged in the past and How will the radio broadcasts sound differ- way it hasn’t been for years. performed in English. It was Mozart’s one ent when the season begins in December? For ticket buyers, although we increased attempt to be popular. This is not the begin- prices for the most desirable seats, we ning of a trend. The performances themselves won’t sound reduced the prices for Family Circle [top I am sympathetic, though, with making different, although we’re looking at the pos- balcony] seats from $25 to $15, which made performances shorter. The only way we can sibility of using wireless mikes to get better 90,000 tickets a season available for $15. do that is through modern stagecraft that lets sound. Then recently, thanks to a board member, us reduce the number of intermissions. In a In presentation, there will be dramatic Agnes Varis, there are now 200 orchestra house as big as the Met, an extra break adds changes. Even though I’ve been associated seats reduced from $100 to $20, available 25 or 30 minutes to the running time of a with the Met for years, I was somewhat Monday through Thursday, two hours before show. For our revival of the Met’s production taken aback when I tuned in, after I was curtain time. of Aida, a few years from now, we’ll save 35 appointed to this position in fall 2004. I was We’re fomenting a kind of creative revo- minutes, eliminating the third intermission quite surprised at how dated the broadcasts lution here. It’s a very delicate operation, by rebuilding the scenery for the Nile scene. sounded. My main objective is to make the though. It has to be achieved without turning off the audience we currently have. Our next tion, thanks to our unions, which allow us to of me to conceive of productions that don’t new production is The Barber of Seville, di- experiment. have the potential to fi ll those seats. rected by Bart Sher with the same team that We’re trying to create our own Metropoli- created the Tony Award-winning Light in the tan Opera model. For example, we have live, You’re making a point of bringing in direc- Piazza and Awake and Sing. high-defi nition transmissions into movie tors from outside the narrowly defi ned fi eld I’m doubling the number of new produc- theaters in this country and abroad, with of opera. tions and concentrating on reviving the most a window of 30 days or so, possibly with famous pieces with the greatest singers. video on demand or live video streaming, I don’t think opera should be pigeon-holed in The idea is that people will want to come to followed by public television broadcasts. terms of the talent pool it draws from. In my the Met once they hear this is a captivating position, I have to be responsible and careful musical and theatrical experience.experience. When would you release DVDs? about what I do. For the PBS broadcasts we’re selecting It’s inappropriate to bring crossover pop those new productions and others that have DVDs would follow, 90 days or 100 days artists to sing at the Met, for example, or something that will appeal to a broader pub- later. to produce musicals with amplifi cation, as lic. I Puritani will have Anna Netrebko, the The great thing is that we’re in a position some opera houses have done. Those are hottest new opera star in the world today. In to learn and experiment. Without our new last-ditch efforts that indicate failure in run- December, we will have the world premiere union agreements, we would be handcuffed ning an of a very dramatic contemporary opera full as we were in the past. opera house in the manner they are meant to of sex and violence—The First Emperor, be run. The natural acoustics in that opera written by Tan Dun, who wrote the score for Last month in Chicago, the Lyric Opera house are a miracle. You can hear glorious Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, a project I and its unions concluded a revenue-shar- voices without amplifi cation. There’s a lot to was responsible for when I was with Sony. ing agreement, apparently inspired by be done in expanding the creative horizons yours, that will let the Lyric return to radio of legitimate opera performances without hav- You’ve commissioned works from some com- broadcasts after an absence of fi ve years. ing to resort to inartistic marketing gimmicks. posers not ordinarily associated with opera. For the Met, the new union pact lets you What would you hope, some day in the fu- enter new media. Other opera companies You were an usher at the Met when you were ture, would be the proportion of Met operas and orchestras are beginning to follow the a teenager. Do you recall hearing Met broad- written in the 21st century? Maybe half? Met’s revenue-sharing model. You’ve created casts when you were even younger? a ripple effect, breaking the logjam. In the immediate future that proportion I did not listen to the Met when I was a kid. certainly will not be anything like half. One It was high time. Quite frankly, it was only I listened to classical radio a lot, but I didn’t of the great achievements of opera is that the possible because the unions understood that have the time or patience to sit through an music has a timeless appeal. The challenge the art form is aging, the audiences have opera performance on the radio. for the Met is to make these pieces fresh been declining. theatrically, through new stage productions, Will kids today have the time or patience to which the Met has not done often enough or In your decade at Sony Classical, you prob- listen to the newly revamped broadcasts? successfully enough in recent decades. Some ably got very tired of having the term “cross- of the great stage productions of Zeffi relli or over” attached to your name, but aren’t I think you have to be an opera lover with Jean-Pierre Ponnelle feel very dated today there some intrinsic merits to breaking down the time to enjoy the art form. No matter after 20 or 30 years. That’s why I’m dou- the barriers between genres of music? Now how good intermissions are, they aren’t bling the number of productions from four you’re bringing in directors and possibly going to make people sit by their radios for a year to seven or eight. But most will come composers from outside of opera. three hours or more. from the standard repertory. What we want to do through radio and Opera lovers may be content if an opera It’s dangerous to relate one to the other. TV is make the experience more compelling is great musically but not theatrically. That’s When I was working for Sony Classical, I for the confi rmed opera lover and make it ap- not enough for the broader audience we need was charged with making profi table record- pealing for those who wish to be introduced to bring to the Met. ings. To succeed in a for-profi t environment, to this art form. ■ At the same time, we’re dramatically I was pushing the envelope in terms of the expanding the number of commissions to types of recordings my label released. Some Interviewer Wesley Horner has been an composers, to give us a chance of fi nding new had great artistic merit, like Tan Dun’s score executive producer of national program- works that can expand the repertory. Hope- for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or John ming for WGBH, NPR and the Smithsonian fully some will actually get to the stage. I’m Corigliano’s score for The Red Violin. They Institution and now serves as an independent only interested in producing works that have a are wonderful examples of stretching the consultant for television and radio pro- chance for great success with the public. audience and art form of modern classical gram development and production. E-mail: composition and making composers more [email protected]. You’ve opened the fl oodgates, making the accessible. Met available in a lot of new media. How do My challenge as general manager of the For information about Current, see the you decide which platform will be free and Met is completely different. I see the role website Current.org/subscribe which will be for a fee? as a chief producer. I have to think with or phone 301-270-7240. both the left and right sides of my brain at We’re experimenting, learning as we go all times. Art in a vacuum cannot make a along, looking at patterns in the entertain- successful opera house. We have 3,800 seats ment business. We’re in a wonderful posi- that we have to fi ll. It would be irresponsible