“Hit hard by a cash shortfall and lackluster ticket sales as it tries to lure audiences back amid the pandemic, the Metropolitan Opera said Monday that it would withdraw up to $30 million from its endowment, give fewer performances next season and accelerate its embrace of contemporary works, which, in a shift, have been outselling the classics,” reports Javier C. Hernández in the Dec. 26 New York Times. “The dramatic financial and artistic moves show the extent to which the pandemic and its aftermath continue to roil the Met, the premier opera company in the United States, and come as many other performing arts institutions face similar pressures.… The Met’s decision to stage significantly more contemporary operas is a remarkable turnabout for the company … The Met is not alone in finding it difficult to emerge from the pandemic.… ‘We’re still in this period of great uncertainty and anxiety,’ said Simon Woods, the president and chief executive of the League of American Orchestras. ‘The need to build new audiences is more urgent than ever.’ ”
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