The Metropolitan Opera has announced a new round of cost-cutting measures, including staff layoffs, salary reductions for senior executives, and the postponement of a planned production, as it continues to confront persistent financial challenges.
According to The New York Times , the measures were outlined by the Met’s general manager Peter Gelb in an interview published on January 20. Gelb said the decision to act now was driven largely by uncertainty surrounding a major financial agreement with Saudi Arabia, which had been announced last year as a potential long-term stabilising force for the company.
Under that arrangement, Saudi Arabia would subsidise the Met in exchange for the company performing several weeks each winter at the Royal Diriyah Opera House near Riyadh. While Gelb told the Times that he remains confident the deal will proceed, he acknowledged delays linked to economic adjustments on the Saudi side, prompting the Met to impose cuts midway through its fiscal year.
As part of the retrenchment, the Met will reduce its upcoming season to 17 productions, down from 18, and postpone a new staging of Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina. The production, which premiered last year at the Salzburg Festival, was to be directed by Simon McBurney and conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen.
The company will also lay off 22 administrative staff members from a total of 284 such positions. In addition, 35 executives earning more than $150,000 annually will take temporary pay cuts ranging from 4 to 15 per cent. Among those affected are Gelb himself and the Met’s music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Gelb told the Times that employees have been informed their full salaries are expected to be restored by August 2027, or sooner if the company’s finances improve.
Looking beyond immediate cuts, the Met is exploring further measures to strengthen its finances. These include the possible sale of naming rights to its opera house at Lincoln Center, following similar moves by other institutions in the complex, as well as the potential sale of two large murals by Marc Chagall that hang in the Grand Tier. The works, commissioned in the 1960s and valued at approximately $55 million, would remain in place under the terms being considered.
The Met has also begun leasing its 3,800-seat auditorium to non-opera productions during dark periods, including upcoming performances of The Last Ship, a musical by Sting.
The latest measures are expected to save the company $15 million in the current fiscal year and a further $25 million next year. They come against the backdrop of broader financial pressures affecting cultural institutions, including reduced audiences, lower donations, and cuts to public funding.
Despite having drawn $120 million from its endowment since 2022 — a move widely seen as exceptional — Gelb told the Times that the Met does not intend to tap those funds again. Instead, he said, the current strategy is aimed at stabilising the organisation while preserving its artistic standards.
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