New York Times: Met in Serious Financial Trouble

Dan Wakin has a startling article in the New York Times that lays out a pretty bleak financial picture for the Metropolitan Opera. The recession's impact on other cultural institutions, particularly New York City Opera, has been well-documented, but this is the biggest sign of trouble from the mightiest of arts organizations. 

The company's general manager, Peter Gelb, said that through administrative cuts, concessions from unions, and the elimination of some of next season's more costly productions, he hopes to avoid a "disaster scenario." An anonymous source put their hypothetical deficit at $40 million, with an endowment that has hemorrhaged one-third of its $300 million.

I don't think the Met is worried about going under--the precipice NYCO teetered on much of the summer and fall--but it does prove that no one is immune from our country's dire financial situation.