· the financially struggling metropolitan opera will present 18 productions in 2024-25, matching the current season and pandemic-curtailed 2019-20 for the fewest since 14 in strike-shortened 1980-81. · the met opera ’ s survival strategy raises urgent questions for the arts: What happens when institutions cling to scale at any cost , even if it means sacrificing integrity? That makes it the worst performer of the ten operas presented in this season’s first part. According to a new york times article, the funds were withdrawn to “survive one of the most trying periods in its 141-year history. ” · the met ’ s operating deficit for the 2024-25 season, which ended in june, is expected to exceed the previous year’s nearly $50 million shortfall, moody’s said in its aug. · after a dismally received world premiere at washington national opera last season—and despite a thorough revision—the opera ’s met run reportedly sold only 50 percent of seats. · the metropolitan opera has withdrawn $40 million from its endowment for additional emergency funds. The met maintained a committed letter of credit (the 2021 letter of credit) in the amount of $13. 5 million as of and 2023 of which $ 10 million serves as security with an insurance company for unpaid workers’ compensation claims. Across the country, opera companies of all sizes are still grappling with the effects of the pandemic as they face smaller audiences because of shifting habits and lifestyles, rising costs and the loss of government aid that kept many alive during the pandemic.
