The shop around the corner
La Cieca’s lovely and talented colleague Olivia Giovetti takes on the Met’s gift shop in the latest installment of her WQX-Aria blog. La Cieca herself is of at the very least two minds about the changes to the gift shop, but she’ll invite you, the cher public, to chew on this issue before starts gnawing on the bone.
The Coliseum Shop was the best shop in London for opera CDs- miles, miles better than the shop at CG.
It went bust last year.
The HMV shop in London was wonderful as well. It seemed they had acres ( or was it hectares)of CD’s – classical and opera ( in the basement) – I’ve not been there for a couple of years but I hear it’s gone too.
The folks at the Lincoln Center Tower were memorable characters – and the opera room was like purgatory – “could you guess who was signing” always crossed the mind before entering paradise.
When Tower went belly up, it seemed obvious that the Met could have taken up the slack. There was a terrific staff in the gift shop( with huge opinions) working in the music section. The people who worked there actually REMEMBERED you – “Oh, your the person from Boston who comes on Saturday day-trips and didn’t you ask for Rossini’s Otello a few months ago ? – I’m not making it up –
Very interesting to know the reason for the shift – the guild really got the shop right. Now I no longer bother.
That HMV in London with the enormous classical department in the basement is still very much there. Not sure how much longer it will be, it increasingly resembles a closing down sale with lots of discounted rubbish you’d never want to buy, but ostensibly at least, it remains in business in the same way it always has.
The shop next to the Colliseum was always an independent business- a branch of MDC, and there are still branches at Foyles and at the South Bank. Not sure what the classical and opera selections are like, I believe the South Bank store is pretty big though.
At this point though, if I’m not shopping online, I tend to use Gramex- there are much richer pickings second hand after you’ve been collecting for a few years, as we all know.
I’m old enough to remember the Coliseum shop *before* the MDC takeover…
The best classical department by far, in London as in New York, was Tower on Piccadilly Circus (and it was open till MIDNIGHT, which led to a few dodgy post-pub purchases). It then became a dodgy Virgin megastore, then an even dodgier Zavvi, and is now a Hollister/All Saints style clothes shop. Sad.
And what did the Tower edge out?
Swan & Edgar
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan_%26_Edgar
Oh I see- I didn’t realise there was one there pre-MDC. I’d better go and get my life right, I suppose.
And yes, I have all sorts of nonsense in my collection thanks to Tower being still open after staggering out of Barcode! Those were the days…
There is no MDC on South Bank any longer. It is gone ..to be replaced by a sushi restaurant.Only Foyles bookstore is there in that complex.
Anyone else remember Henry Stave and The Gramaphone Shop (listening booths for LPs)?
Whilst its a bit miserable that they seem to be letting down the recording side (and I never saw the ‘old shop’), unfortunately I understand the commercial decision. I’m pretty unique amongst my friends of my age group in that I still even buy CDs. And I can’t remember the last time I bought any in a store. When I was looking for a CD player the standard response was- “what for?”.
Presumably the handover from the Guild to the Company was prompted by the realisation that retail can be a nice earner? Perhaps opera companies are just coming to the same realisation that museums made ten years ago- that their shop (and restaurant- something most performing arts places still fall short in) can be real moneymakers.
It would be interesting to see what percentage of sales were to out-of-towners looking for a souvenir and what were to NY locals. Out-of-towners probably don’t look for a CD to commemorate an experience.
Though I hope the Met Shop doesn’t turn out like museum shops which effectively became an unofficial chain for the same items you could be guaranteed to find in any museum store (if I see those miniature designer chairs one more time…).
Ianw2:
You almost had me spitting iced coffee all over my laptop with your line about the “miniature designer chairs”…lol lol…!—how about those FRIGGIN shoe ornaments??
I worked for many year at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, just about the time that the retail operations seemed to -almost- mushroom out of control (yes– those operations DO supply organizations with a nice chunk of change..)..and we had just hired as the Director of the Shops a former Vice-President of…Bloomingdales…!( one explanation as to why there is so much smokey glass and brass fitting in the shops, now..nu?)
Yes The Other Met shops were infamous… I believe there was one in Singapore Airport at one stage. Didn’t they shutter a whole lot of them in the last few years? I believe that they still do gangbusters with mail order/online though
Oh, and I swear the same set of Taschen books follow me round the globe… museum to museum…
Yet another post in which you include the Yiddish interrogative. Any reason for that? Am I missing some significance?
“nu” is one of those words which,( as so much of yiddish,) can have various meanings, depending on the context, and tone of the user.. but hard to actually translate its richness into English It tends to have a sharper sarcastic tinge to it then “well?”..”so?”..”what about that?”..”what do you think?”, which are SOME of the ways it can be translated..
And..I grew up in a Yiddish-speaking Heim…
What truly baffles me is what is behind the reluctance of companies to transfer out of print recordings to mp3 format and sell them either on amazon or on itunes. Considering the ease with which I burn a CD I can not imagine transforming the master of an old recording into an mp3 would be that difficult or that costly. Does anyone with more experience in the biz have an answer here?
Does itunes charge some ungodly fee? Does amazon? If the issue is an unwillingness to break the pieces up into individual .99 cent chunks then fine, give us only the option of buying the whole work. MYTO has done it with a few recordings, but not all which also makes no sense.
This is a total guess, but I suspect licencing might be an issue. One of the first things I do whenever I travel to another country is have a trawl through itunes to see what I might be able to buy which I couldn’t at home.
I suspect you’re right. I had to do a graduate class on licensing and copyright and other riveting subjects and it made my head spin. To this day I’m not entirely sure how I passed. I get a tiny royalty check every year, but I have no idea why. Obviously, my education was a sterling investment.
I agree with all the comments on the lack of CDs.It was a great place to buy some rare stuff, especially after Tower bit the dust.
Also, I used to buy a t-shirt ever year to wear while working out. They used to have good basic colors for a male to wear along with a basic non-curlicue font. I have several older ones in white or gray with just The Metropolitan Opera on the front and maybe the arche. Now, I get weird designer colors and cutesy fonts.
Someone please tell the people in charge to bring back some basic designs and colors.
When I was younger I started building my opera CD collection by mail order from Wiener Staatsoper’s Gift Shop. They had everything. When I immigrated to the States, the Met’s gift shop was a true treasure for me, even though expensive.
They also had better sales people who were extremely knowledgeable and polite. Now the transformation is huge and disappointing. Those embarrassing Carmen bracelets, or “E tardi” watches and jewelry.
Besides, the crew seems to change every time I visit. They sure have a huge staff turnover. I don’t know the manager but there is one bald gentleman working there, wearing heavy mascara, who always screams around the shop promoting the current DVD playing on the screen, which is so embarrassing even in farmer’s market standards.
I wouldn’t mind paying extra to buy CD’s instead of downloading them. However there is no option out there. I remember buying some rare Gencer CD’s from J&R few years ago, including the famous Norma recording (from three different performances.)
I’ll go to my hometown Nice next year, they have some of the best music shops.
‘here is one bald gentleman working there, wearing heavy mascara, who always screams around the shop promoting the current DVD playing on the screen’
Homosexuals? In shops? Shops that sell opera recordings? Trying to sell them? I won’t believe it.
What told you he was a man who had sex with men? His baldness? His makeup? His screaming? I have some hets you might like to meet.
Call it a hunch.
The Town Crier! He’s driven me from the Met Opera shop more than once.
My dear Macbeth and armerjacquino,
As the man whose eyelashes have come into question, let me assure you, my lashes are bonafide. The real deal. There is not even a hint of MAC on them.
As for the rest of what you wrote about me – yeah – it’s sorta on the money.
Best wishes and regards
VA
Try going to the Juilliard Music Store, a block or two up from the Met. They have finally opened up their new store after an eternity in that damn trailer, and it has a great array of items, plus those damn dumb tee shirts. The same recording you might still be able to buy at the Met Opera Shop, you will find for a little less at the Juilliard Store. Wonderful books, music, and the other paraphenalia that music lovers may want….
“Embarrassing bracelets”!!!!!!! HA! Good one, that! I bought one for a friend for a birthday present and I’m to embarrassed to give it and I’m too embarrassed to wear it, and so it sits, and gathers dust….
I MISS TOWER! THE OPERA ROOM! THE TRULY KNOWLEDGEABLE AND INFORMATIVE PERSONS IN THE OPERA ROOM! THE ARMCHAIRS TO COLLAPSE IN! THE CETRA RECORDS ON SALE IN THEIR RED VELVET JACKETS!!!
I’ll save me pennies, Mr. Gelb, and head on up to Trader Joe’s to buy meself some Vegan Pad Thai!!!!
Yes, it’s @ http://www.thejuilliardstore.com
Address: 144 West 66th Street, between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue.
Happy hunting. There used to be a price differential between their CD’s and the Met’s. I am not entirely certain that is still the case, since they’ve moved into their shiny bright new emporium.
[Full disclosure: I do not work there nor have any interest in promoting their interests.]
I took my first trip to the Metropolitan this year, and was sorely disappointed in the gift shop. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out who most of that junk was marketed toward. The most shocking thing was that the DVD on the screen was a compilation of Natalie Dessay scenes. A gentleman near me asked “Who is that singing?” and the lady behind the counter couldn’t identify her – this was at the Dessay Lucia!! I must admit that their variety is much greater than any retail store in my area, which I loved – I got the Levine/Migenes Lulu on DVD, one of the documents I cherish most.
This is a subject that really gets me fired up! Looking at the record sales market today, where opera mp3 sales are concerned , it is a harking example… back to the 78RPM days. When people brought a 12″ record containing just one or two arias -’bits of operas’.
Worse in strict copyright terms with downloads you have what is the right ‘to rent’ the material, you do not actually own a physical copy of the material.Plus you get no packaging, nor libretto included.
Gone are all the great record stores, now replaced with those that sell classical as a sideline, with a few tacky little releases of Bartoli or the latest hit Baroque ‘eunuch’. I am grateful I was around for the hey day when one might run into a favored shop owner in the street , who told you he had some special imports one might be interested in. Or literally crawling around the floor of some classical remainder shop floor eagerly discovering new recordings, tucked in a bottom corner – a mother lode of perhaps hard to get items at ridiculous prices. When also, proprietors just as passionate about music, tipped you off a big clearance shipment was coming out of the inventories of various record companies to their shop.
Today it is about entertainment centers glitz plasmas showing and promoting some DVD about the ‘Best of…shit’ they are selling, with dumb idiots serving at the counter. We are back into the days of fragmentary delivery. “Do you want the CD, the mp3,the DVD or perhaps the Blu-ray?” is the question facing people. Even as a laid down ‘recorded performance’ what are we basing our opinion of a new release on, sound-wise? And they used to scream about having two inventories carried, that.. of mono and stereo. I will just stick to my 7000CDs, 2000 vinyl and various tapes. I think I have enough.