Met Head Says Opera Risks Failure Unless It Cuts Labor Bill

Metropolitan Opera General Manager Peter Gelb told the BBC that the company will “face a bankruptcy situation in two or three years” if it does not make major reductions in its spending on wages.

Management has proposed cutting the opera’s $200-million labor bill by 16 percent through changes in work rules for its orchestra and chorus. Mr. Gelb told a BBC radio program over the weekend that compensation accounts for two-thirds of the Met’s costs. “I’m just trying to address this problem a few steps before the edge of the precipice instead of waiting until we are actually on the precipice,” he said.

Unions representing the opera’s workers have vowed to fight the cuts and are threatening to strike if negotiations do not produce an agreement before current labor contracts run out at the end of July.