“Influx” of donations
This is yet another blow to an organization that has been struggling for several years to attract a younger audience and fill the 3,800 seats in its hall, one of the largest in the world.
The Met’s budget is considerable and reached, in 2018-19, $ 312 million.
Patronage and donations are the main source of income for the institution.
In this regard, Peter Gelb noted that, since the start of the pandemic, the Met had received an “influx” of donations, including 30,000 new donors.
To project itself into the future, the opera presented the calendar for the 2021-22 season on Wednesday.
The season will open on Fire Shut Up in My Bones, an opera composed by jazz musician Terence Blanchard, commissioned by the Met with the Opera Theater in Saint-Louis, where it has already been presented.
The New York opera has included three contemporary works in its program, a first since the 1928-29 season.
As mentioned in June, the Met plans to bring the curtain up for many performances and reduce the duration of operas, “to meet the expectations of an audience that will be, at least initially, more cautious.” than usual given the pandemic.
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