parterre box

43 comments

• Nerva Nelli says:

  “Yes, that means Ros Plowright makes top fee when she appears, no matter how crap she sounds. She a star of long time standing, and if they are engaging her, she is making bank.”

  Reason enough for Fiend to be fired ( we know that Billingsgate has married her job security!(

  on February 12, 2009 at 9:14 PM
• iltenoredigrazia says:

  Somehow that doesn’t make business sense either from the Met’s side or the artist’s side. I thought contracts were individually negotiated: you sing these roles in these performances and we give you so much money.

  Do Boheme performances sell better because of luxury cast for Ben/Alc? I can see the Met graciously continuing Plishka’s contract so that he can reach some desired point for his retirement and Plishka accepting a low fee for the same reason. Otherwise, why wouldn’t the Met just cast a young basso for the roles.

  Similarly, I can’t imagine that RAS would not accept a lower fee for the opportunity to continue singing at the Met.

  The trustees go crazy asking for money and then they sanction such expenditures? I’ve never heard of any business working in a such a way.

  on February 12, 2009 at 10:03 PM
• Cassandra says:

  “I’ve never heard of any business working in a such a way.”

  This business is so archaic and bizarre financially, I’m flummoxed that it doesn’t just cease to exist.

  One of the biggest questions that I have throughout my career, is how the greatest houses and the highest profile jobs in New York actually pay the least amount of money! When you sing at the Met, or with the Philharmonic, or at Carnegie, you will receive far less than you would receive in comparable establishments throughout the US or Europe. Far, far less.

  Someone needs to explain to me how singing in the most prestigious and important houses in New York equates to making less money then singing elsewhere. It has yet to be explained to me, and I’ve asked several different sides of the business about it. No one has a satisfactory answer. Most just shrug.

  I find it astonishing. A doctor, banker, Wall Streeter, etc., working at or near the top of their field certainly wouldn’t accept less money to work in a prestigious environment. They would go elsewhere.

  But since this is “art,” and I use that phrase with a profound sense of irony in NY at least half the time, artists are asked to make less rather than more to sing here. It’s flat out bizarre.

  There is a reason why some great singers and performers choose not to come to New York as frequently as they otherwise would, and it’s because of the bizarre fee structure, and how little one is paid. The simple fact of the matter is that one can make much more money elsewhere.

  on February 13, 2009 at 11:35 AM