In Thursday’s (6/16) Wall Street Journal, Erica Orden reports, “In a sign that the Metropolitan Opera may be easing itself out of several years of recession-battered books, company officials said Wednesday that the opera expects to achieve a balanced budget this year for the first time since 2004. While specific financial figures for the current fiscal year, which ends July 31, will not be released until next spring, a spokesman for the company, Peter Clark, said the balanced budget can be attributed to increased revenues. The news is a bright spot for the Met, which has faced annual deficits, significant fund-raising challenges and serious decline in its endowment in recent years, including the last fiscal year. … One area in which the Met cut costs was senior-staff compensation, including that of general manager Peter Gelb, whose compensation package declined last year to $1.27 million from $1.43 million, according to tax returns and audited financial statements released Wednesday for the 2010 fiscal year. The documents showed notable upticks in several key areas in 2010. Contributions and grants, one of the most crucial elements of the opera’s financial picture, climbed to $127 million from $105 million.”
Posted June 16, 2011
