The Metropolitan Opera’s funding has hit a flat note.
The cash-strapped New York cultural institution is laying off staff, chopping high-ranking executives’ salaries, postponing a new show and possibly selling off two murals worth $55 million, according to a report.
Peter Gelb, the Met’s general manager, announced the hefty cutbacks Tuesday, a move he said he was forced to make as a funding deal with Saudi Arabia looks like it might be turning sour.
“I have to show we can finance the Met going forward and at the same time demonstrate that we can cut the costs that we can cut without undermining our artistic results,” Gelb said in an interview with The New York Times.
“We have to do it.”
Gelb blamed the intense cutbacks on the controversial $200 million deal the opera struck with Saudi Arabia back in September.
In exchange for the chunk of cash, the Met would perform at the Royal Diriyah Opera House near Riyadh three weeks each winter for the next eight years.
But the Middle Eastern country has not yet made good on its deal.
“I understand the Saudis have had to recalibrate their budgets because of their own economic concerns,” Gelb said. “I’ve been assured that it’s going to go forward. But we have been waiting for some time.”
Instead, at least 22 people who hold administrative posts will lose their jobs — roughly 8% of that workforce, though the Met employs upwards of 3,000 people.
The 35 executives who earn more than $150,000 a year will see graduated cuts in their pay of 4 percent to 15 percent, depending on their salaries, The Times reported.
Even Gelb will suffer a paycut. Last year, he made nearly $1.4 million.
The pay cuts will be temporary, though Gelb did not tell the paper whether those laid off will be offered to return.
The Met is also reducing its next season from 18 productions to 17, postponing its new production of Mussorgsky’s “Khovanshchina,” which had premiered last year in Salzburg, Austria.
The opera house is also considering other cost-saving avenues, including the sale of two Chagall murals, which were commissioned in the 1960s to hang in the building’s Grand Tier and together are valued at $55 million.
The buyer would not get to take them home, however. The murals would continue to hang, but with a donation plaque alongside them.
The Met is also considering selling the naming rights to its theater in Lincoln Center, much like how its neighboring David H. Koch Theater is home to the New York City Ballet.
The Met is also likely to lease the 3,800-seat theater to pop artists on nights when the company is not using the space — like “The Last Ship,” a musical written by and starring Sting, that will be presented for nine shows in June.
Fortunately, it doesn’t look like the Met Under 40 program — which offers discounted tickets to young visitors — will be affected.
“We are being as entrepreneurial as possible,” Gelb said.
“What is clear is that we have to come up with new business models. It’s true for all performing institutions, but the costs are so great for running an institution like the Met, that it is necessary to find new ways to fund it.”
Those cuts should save the company $25 million this year and $25 million the following.
The Met has been struggling since the pandemic, after which it drained $120 million from its endowment to stay afloat.
Before 2020, the Met regularly put on 25 productions per season.
