Ms. Sills has not been able to find another corporate sponsor and is depending on the public to save the Met international radio broadcasts going forward.  For more information, and to find out on which stations the Saturday afternoon live opera is broadcast in your city and country, see the Met Broadcast section of this website.

Joseph Volpe will retire in 2006 after 16 years as the General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera.   Mr. Volpe, born and raised in New York (Brooklyn and Long Island) started with the Met in 1964 as an apprentice stagehand.  Forty years later, having worked his way up through the ranks to General Manager, he is getting ready to hand over the reigns in 2 years. 

Beginning in 2005 the Met will be dark for 2 weeks in January. Dollars have not been coming in and the recovery has been slow since September 11, 2001. The MET's revenues depend heavily on international tourism, donations and subscription series - all of which are down. Hopes are that the new create-your-own subscriptions, with a liberal exchange policy might move some people from single ticket buying to buying subscriptions. The 2 week hiatus will be during the Met's slowest time and is planned to last for 3 years.
ChevronTexaco has dropped it's sponsorship of the live radio broadcasts
from the Met. The Met hopes to continue broadcasts with reruns.

The New Jersey Opera Festival will cease operations due to falling revenue.

La Fenice opened again (for one week) 12/14/2003 looking much like it did before the beloved 19th century Venetian opera house burned to the ground on January 29, 1996. The proud re-opening was for orchestral concerts only (including one by Elton John). After these concerts, La Fenice will close again
until November12, 2004 when Lorin Maazel will conduct La Traviata.

OperaNotes Commentary:
The Met Radio Broadcasts have given us incredible live opera every Saturday afternoon during the opera season.  They have allowed us to hear live opera in most countries throughout the world.  Let Chevron Texaco know that you are not happy with their decision to drop their sponsorship.  See the Met Broadcast section of this website to find out how to contact Chevron Texaco.  And, help Beverly Sills help us to save the broadcasts by supporting her financially in her fund raising effort.   

The Met is an important opera house, maybe THE most important opera house. So - GO TO THE OPERA FOLKS! Don't say that you'll go next week!  Next week never comes! If you are reading this, then you love the opera. GO! Take your kids, take your mom, take your dad, sister, brother, wife, husband, significant other, lover, friend, enemy, take a stranger or go yourself!
Just GO TO THE OPERA!

The Opera Festival of New Jersey was an EXCELLENT festival! This is
a terrible blow to opera and the arts everywhere! Last summer's Onegin
could compete with the superb Onegin at the Paris opera last April. This
is very, very sad. To all of you who worked so hard, behind the scenes
and on the stage, to give us excellent productions throughout the years -
BRAVI!

We are seeing in real terms that SUPPORT THE ARTS is not just rhetoric. What happens when the music dies? If we don't support the arts, who will do it? How many more places will go dark? Maybe they will stay dark.

Try new operas. Yeah, we all love the old war horses, they are wonderful. But in their own time many were seen as simply noise. Support the arts by seeing the new and non-time-tested. You may hate it, BUT, you may be surprised. You may love it. Step out of your comfort zone for a while and give it a try.

Look for things that James Levine is conducting. They may not be new, but they are probably the less well known, maybe a bit more complex, but hey, he's searching to bring us music we should know about. Cecilia Bartoli does this for us too. Do it yourself. Search. Not only at the Met, but NY City Opera and check out Symphony Space and other venues that take chances. Dead Man Walking's debut at NY City Opera last season received great reviews! Vera of Las Vegas at Symphony Space was a contemporary opera that was fun and full of talent. I'd see it again!

Stre-e-e-tch your musical tastes. Discover something new or something a little complex.

SUPPORT THE ARTS IN THIS WONDERFUL CITY!
SUPPORT THE ARTS EVERYWHERE!