By Oli Coleman, Page Six | Bombs away! There’s a war of words over New York Metropolitan Opera’s season opener “Grounded” — a military opera about drone warfare. The New York Times riddled the piece last month with critical holes, calling it “bloodless” and “bland.”
On Monday night, Met director Peter Gelb returned fire, strafing the Gray Lady — and its chief classical critic, Zachary Woolfe — and claiming there was “an agenda” behind the brutal review.
At an intimate event for the Musicians Foundation, Gelb — who has been the head of the storied institution since 2006 — discussed the ongoing struggle to bring the artform to a wider audience.
During a conversation with the foundation’s executive director, David Gracia, Gelb said that — to grab more listeners — he believes that companies like his need to stage more “accessible” works that appeal to people’s “emotions as well as their intellect.”
But, he said, it “isn’t easy” — and used Woolfe’s Sept. 24 review to illustrate his point.
“[‘Grounded’ is] a brilliant work that has a brilliant story, and it has great emotional impact,” he said.
“I’ve been around long enough to know that critics write — and they should write — what they feel,” he said. “But sometimes you get the sense that there’s an agenda, and that’s where it [becomes] troublesome.”
The audience at a swank home on the Upper East Side seemed to agree heartily with the illustrious administrator.
“There’s a great deal of resentment on the part of some critics — not all critics, some critics — about the idea that music should be approachable by a large audience and should be available to more people and some critics might [prefer to] keep it sacred, in some ways, for themselves,” he said.
Later during a Q&A, he was asked by an audience member to describe the alleged agenda.
Gelb said he believes some critics “wish” the Met were producing certain music that they personally “champion,” such as “the operas of [deceased modernist American composer] Elliot Carter or pieces that I don’t believe would have popular success.”
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https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/met-opera-s-peter-gelb-slams-ny-times-chief-critic-claims-agenda-behind-brutal-review-of-drone-show/
Photo: Peter Gelb with Ukranian interns | https://www.facebook.com/MetOpera
Last week, Peter Gelb, the Met’s Maria Manetti Shrem General Manager, welcomed the second cohort of Ukrainian interns to the Met!
Pictured here with Peter Gelb are Tetiana Hnatiuk, Lada Shylenko, Andrii Koshman, and Daria Maksymova.
These four young professionals from Ukraine have been assigned to our media, marketing and development departments and over the next five months will gain first-hand experience working in one of the worlds’ premiere opera houses, giving them invaluable experiences for their future careers.
This internship program, established in 2023 with Olena Zelenska to provide help to the performing arts in Ukraine, in partnership with the @UkrainianHabitatFund. These efforts are a part of the Met’s ongoing support for Ukraine.