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New York Times
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
After a Young Arts Patron's Donation Did Not Clear, He Was Found Dead
He was a regular at some of the most prestigious and glamorous events on New York's cultural calendar, from gala performances at the Metropolitan Opera to black-tie soirees for American Ballet Theater and the Frick Collection. And as Matthew Christopher Pietras began donating to arts organizations, he found himself eagerly courted by institutions that are desperate to find new generations of young patrons. He was invited to join the board of the Met Opera and began sponsoring galas. When the Frick Collection reopened this year after a $220 million renovation, his name had been inscribed onto a wall alongside those of other donors, and a staff position had been named for him. Then, this May, everything went terribly awry. Mr. Pietras, who had worked for the Soros family and described himself to people as a financial manager, arranged to transfer a $10 million donation to the Met Opera on May 28. That evening, he attended American Ballet Theater's spring gala. The next morning, a Soros representative reached out to the Met and told the company that the money actually belonged to a member of the Soros family and not to Mr. Pietras, according to a Met official with knowledge of the institution's actions. The Met reached out to Mr. Pietras for an explanation, and he briefly responded that he would look into the issue, but the organization did not hear from him again. The next day, just before noon on May 30, the police were called to his apartment near Madison Square Park, where Mr. Pietras, 40, was found dead. Mr. Pietras's sudden death, which is still under investigation by the medical examiner, has forced the Met and the Frick to contend with a swirl of questions about his philanthropy. For the Met Opera, which returned the $10 million after Mr. Pietras's death, the bizarre turn of events created a real financial problem at a moment when credit ratings agencies have expressed concern about its reliance on large draws from its endowment fund. With an unexpected shortfall in its cash flow, the Met got permission from the executive committee of its board in June to draw another $5 million from its endowment to help make up the missing funds, according to the Met official. Several committee members offered to make up the remaining $5 million that the company had been counting on. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Hindustan Times
30-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Russian soprano's case alleging national original discrimination against the Met Opera to proceed
NEW YORK — A federal judge says Russian soprano Anna Netrebko can move forward with her case claiming national original discrimination by the Metropolitan Opera, which dropped her after she refused to repudiate President Vladimir Putin over Russia's campaign against Ukraine. Russian soprano's case alleging national original discrimination against the Met Opera to proceed The decision by U.S. District Judge Analisa Nadine Torres in Manhattan was made public Wednesday, a day after it was issued. The case, which will proceed alongside her claim of gender discrimination, has yet to be scheduled for trial. The Met did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Met General Manager Peter Gelb had demanded that she repudiate Putin shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, but she refused and was withdrawn from three Met productions. The Met replaced her with Ukrainian soprano Liudmyla Monastyrska in at least one of those productions. Last August, Torres dismissed the performer's national original discrimination claim, when she also threw out allegations of defamation and breach of contract. But in her latest decision, the judge wrote that the 'allegations support the inference that Netrebko's replacement by non-Russian artists occurred under circumstances giving rise to at least a 'minimal' inference of discrimination.' The American Guild of Musical Artists filed a grievance on Netrebko's behalf and arbitrator Howard C. Edelman ruled in February 2023 that the Met violated the union's collective bargaining agreement when it canceled deals with Netrebko for three productions. Edelman awarded compensation the union calculated at $209,103.48. Torres allowed Netrebko to proceed with her separate allegation of gender discrimination under the New York State Human Rights Law and New York City Human Rights Law. She said the Met treated Netrebko's male counterparts with connections to Putin and the Russian government more favorably. She cited bass-baritone Evgeny Nikitin and baritones Igor Golovatenko and Alexey Markov, who have continued to sing at the Met. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
The Independent
13-06-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Met Opera attendance dropped in spring as tourism fell, coinciding with immigration crackdown
Metropolitan Opera season attendance dropped slightly following the Trump administration's immigration crackdown that coincided with a decrease in tourists to New York. The Met sold 72% of capacity, matching 2023-24 and down from its 75% projection. 'We were on track to continue to improve,' Met general manager Peter Gelb said Friday. 'We were disappointed by the sales in the last two months of the season — our projections were much higher and I attribute the fact that we didn't achieve our sales goals to a significant drop in tourism." New York City Tourism & Conventions last month reduced its 2025 international visitor projection by 17%, the Met said. International buyers accounted for 11% of sales, down from the Met's projection of 16% and from about 20% before the coronavirus pandemic. 'It's unfortunate, but this is the times in which we live,' Gelb said. The Met said factoring ticket discounts, it realized 60% of potential income, down from 64% in 2023-24 but up from 57% in 2022–23. 'We were able to sell an equal amount of tickets the last year, but there were more discounted tickets,' Gelb said. 'This really was the result of the last two months of the season.' There were 76,000 new ticket buyers, a drop from 85,000 in 2023-24, and the average age of single ticket buyers was 44, the same as in the previous season and a drop from 50 before the pandemic. Subscriptions accounted for just 7% of ticket sales, down from 12-15% before the pandemic, Gelb said economic uncertainty impacted sales for next season. 'The stock market jumping up and down made people feel insecure,' he said. 'In one week we saw an enormous decline in our advance for next season. Then it picked up again.' Met music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin earned $2,045,038 in the year end last July 31, up from $1,307,583, in the previous fiscal year, according to the company's tax return released Friday. Gelb earned $1,395,216, roughly the same as his $1,379,032 in 2022-23,and he also accrued $798,205 listed as retirement or deferred compensation. Assets declined by about $40 million to $467 million, primarily because of an endowment draw following the pandemic. Among individual productions last season, the highest percentage of tickets sold were for the English-language version of Mozart 's 'The Magic Flute' and a new staging of Verdi 's 'Aida,' both at 82%, followed by the company premiere of Jake Heggie's 'Moby-Dick' at 81% Other new productions included Strauss' 'Salome' (74%), John Adams' 'Antony and Cleopatra' (65%), Osvaldo Golijov's 'Ainadamar' (61%) and Jeanine Tesori's 'Grounded' (50%). The best-selling revivals were Puccini's 'Tosca' (78%), Tchaikovsky's 'Pique Dame (The Queen of Spades)' and Puccini's La Bohème (77% each), Beethoven's 'Fidelio' and Rossini's 'Il Barbiere di Siviglia' (76% each) and Mozart's 'Le Nozze di Figaro' (71%). Lagging were Strauss' 'Die Frau ohne Schatten' (68%0, Verdi's 'Rigoletto' (64%), Offenbach's 'Les Contes d'Hoffmann' and the German-language version of Mozart's 'Die Zauberflöte' (62% each) and Verdi's 'Il Trovatore' (59%).
New York Times
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
The Pint-Size Singers Hoping to Be Opera Stars
The Metropolitan Opera's stage door, a plain entrance hidden in the tunnels of Lincoln Center, routinely welcomes star singers, orchestra musicians, stagehands, costumers and ushers. But a different bunch of visitors arrived there on a recent afternoon, carrying stuffed toy rabbits and 'Frozen' backpacks. They were children, ages 7 to 10, dressed in patent leather shoes, frilly socks and jackets decorated with dinosaurs. They were united in a common mission: to win a spot in the Met children's chorus, a rigorous, elite training ground for young singers. 'This might be the biggest day of my life,' said Naomi Lu, 9, who admires pop singers like Taylor Swift and Katy Perry. She was knitting a lilac friendship necklace to stay calm as she waited in the lobby. 'I feel nervous and excited at the same time,' she said. 'You could say I'm nerv-cited.' Singing in the shower or in a school choir is one thing. But these students, who came from across New York City and its suburbs, were vying for the chance to perform at the Met, one of the world's grandest stages, a temple of opera that presents nearly 200 performances each year. Chorus members have a chance at roles like the angelic boys in Mozart's 'The Magic Flute'; the Parisian kids in Puccini's 'La Bohème'; or the street urchins in Bizet's 'Carmen,' to name a few. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Dandy Attire for a Night at the Opera
You don't need a ticket to experience some of the romance of Lincoln Center's operas and ballets. Arrive about an hour before showtime on a spring evening and you can freely observe people in varied finery making their way up the plaza's steps and past its fountain. Amid the parade of evening wear and cocktail attire on a Friday in early May, James R. Palmisano emerged from stage right — more precisely, from the northern edge of the performing arts complex on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Mr. Palmisano, 32, who was on his way to see 'Salome' at the Metropolitan Opera, looked dashing in his ensemble of double-breasted jacket, pleated trousers and blue shirt and tie. He had bought the jacket secondhand a few years ago in Brighton, England, he said. He noted that his appreciation for clothes had been shaped by his job as a tailor at the Met Opera, where he had worked on productions including, yes, 'Salome.' 'Our head tailors are very skilled and they're good at getting the fit right,' Mr. Palmisano said. 'They're quite particular at the opera about that, so it's really enjoyable to see them work and to learn why certain things are done to get a shape for a particular person. You have to start somewhere, and you have to start with it on your body.' When asked if there was any styling advice he would give to men in today's trend-forward era, Mr. Palmisano had three suggestions: Groom regularly, dress classically and stay away from synthetic fabrics. 'They don't feel nice,' he said. 'They don't last long.' Tap to see more looks
