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 Metropolitan Opera expects to achieve a balanced budget in 2011, the first for the company since 2004. In other good news, contributions and grants were up about 21% between 2009 and 2010; program service revenue rose about 6% in the same period. Maestro James Levine took a 5% pay cut, sending his 2010 compensation tumbling to only $1.5 million. [Bloomberg]
You asked for it, cher public, and La Cieca is happy to olige: a post to anchor the week’s off-topic and general converation threads.
Briefly, according to Zachary Woolfe: “No one came.” More elaboration, plus speculation on “What That Means,” in the New York Observer. And for those of you with a taste for hash, the subject is revisited as well in the New York Times.
“Je les tiens dans les mains, je les tiens dans la bouche… Je les tiens dans le bras, je les mets autour de mon cou… Je n’ouvrirai plus les mains cette nuit!”
In what may qualify as the most unholy alliance of Peter Gelb‘s tenure at the Met so far, since February the “Live in HD” performances from 2009 of both Turandot and Aida issued by Decca have been available from… Target. Only Target. They are scheduled for international release this July. Up until recently there has been no mention on Decca’s or The Met’s website of either. It’s like the first Mrs. Rochester hidden away. Also, they’re both a bargain at $19.99 a piece. I’m writing both of these in shorthand since I don’t think I have to refresh anyone’s memory [...]
Cher Public