Audiences Are Returning to the Met Opera, however Not for Everything

Because of reductions provided on some tickets, the Met’s field workplace has additional to go to get well: It took in about 64 % of its potential revenue this yr, up from 57 % final yr however nonetheless beneath the 69 % it took in for final full season earlier than the pandemic.

When Moody’s downgraded the Met’s credit standing in February to Ba3, from Ba2, and revised its outlook to adverse from secure, it famous that whereas the corporate was working to economize, “the Met’s applications stay comparatively excessive price stemming from a dedication to programmatic excellence that continues to be costly to ship.”

Gelb mentioned that the pivot to extra up to date operas had helped usher in new viewers members. There have been 84,934 new ticket consumers this yr, a document, and 9,000 greater than final season. About 21,000 bought tickets for a up to date opera, and about 10 % of these then purchased tickets for an additional manufacturing. (The Met mentioned ticket consumers buy a mean of two seats.) The viewers can be youthful: The common age of single-ticket consumers has fallen to 44, from 50 earlier than the pandemic.

Ahead of its manufacturing of “X,” the Met hosted a starry, 18-hour studying of Malcolm X’s autobiography. But publicity didn’t all the time translate into ticket gross sales. Daniel Catán’s “Florencia en el Amazonas” drew consideration as the corporate’s first work by a Mexican composer; it had 68 % attendance. Jake Heggie’s “Dead Man Walking,” which was given the coveted spot of opening the season, had 62 % attendance. And John Adams’s opera-oratorio “El Niño,” which acquired constructive critiques from critics, ended at 58 % attendance.

Gelb mentioned he couldn’t clarify why some new operas, together with the revival of “The Hours,” didn’t fare higher this season.

“If we knew what would end in a sold-out home,” he mentioned, “all the things could be bought out.”

Even some classics struggled to seek out huge audiences. A manufacturing of Wagner’s “Tannhäuser,” with a world-class forged, together with the corporate debut of the baritone Christian Gerhaher, had 64 % attendance. Verdi’s “Un Ballo in Maschera” was on the backside of the listing, with 56 % attendance.