THE MET PLAYED ALL SEASON ONE-THIRD EMPTY

Figures released at the close of the Met season to the Associated Press show a slight increase in ticket sales at the Metropolitan Opera – from 61 percent in the post-Covid return year to 66 percent in 2022-23.

Before the Covid shutdown, the Met ran at 75 percent of capacity in 2018-19.

Playing one-third empty across a whole season of relative prosperity is a dismal result for the biggest performing arts companny in America.

And it turns out dollar earnings were even worse. Taking discounted tickets into account, the Met’s revenues were just 57 percent of full capacity.

General manager Peter Gelb continues to clutch as straws. He claims that a bot attack which shut the box-office for a week may have clipped as much as 2 percent of seasonal sales, and that the average age of Met attenders has fallen encouragingly from 50 to the mid-40s.

In other company stats, music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin earned $1,195,702 and Gelb $1,094,327.

Source: https://slippedisc.com/