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Peter Gelb

General Manager, The Metropolitan Opera

Search every verified Peter Gelb interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. In a May 2020 interview, Peter Gelb stated that the Metropolitan Opera faced an existential threat from the coronavirus pandemic, having closed on March 11, 2020, two months ahead of schedule at a cost of $60 million. Gelb said the Met was planning a comeback but noted that the performing arts would be the last group to return. He described the Met's "at home gala," which he said was executed via Skype with the help of a production facility, and credited the idea to a sleepless night. Gelb expressed his belief that opera and the Met would survive, stating that "a civilized society cannot exist without the Performing Arts." He also noted that the Met, with close to 3,000 employees, did not qualify for payroll protection under stimulus packages. In a 2018 interview, Gelb discussed his documentary "The Opera House," which covers the Met's transition from its old building to the Lincoln Center opera house. He attributed the construction of Lincoln Center to the Met's need for a new home, the New York Philharmonic's desire to exit Carnegie Hall, and Robert Moses' development of the Upper West Side.

Recent appearances

Notable quotes

“My message to the Ukrainian people is that they must hang on that the government governments change. You know, America has has long been the symbol of democracy for the world. Now it is not for the moment temporarily. If anything, Ukraine is a symbol of democracy right now. I think that the Ukrainians have to hang on and know that the world cannot let Ukraine down.”

“I was there because we had a cultural exchange agreement with with Russia which was to co-produce the opera Lohengrin by Wagner and no one in Russia believed there was going to be an invasion. The people I spoke to even though the United States was telling the world the invasion was imminent. It was seemed to no one was ready for it. And when I left Russia and I arrived left Moscow and flew back to New York, the inva”

“The situation in the United States is very complicated right now, to put it mildly. The there's no question there's an enormous drop off of tourists. Uh I mean, I think 75% fewer Canadians are coming. And the Met has, you know, like Broadway relies upon uh foreign visitors. We always have before the pandemic, 20% of our audience was made up of international tourists. And that number had been improving as tourism had ”

“I don't produce opera for critics. I produce opera for audiences. And the majority of the audience like this ring and so you know that's you know it may be different in Germany maybe German intendants think that the critics are more important than the audience. I feel the other way around.”

“I do not believe in wokeness for the sake of wokeness. I believe in great art. And certainly though, if Black Lives Matter and changes in society give us the flexibility to broaden our programming, I'm all for it. I just don't believe in jumping through wokeness hoops as a standalone exercise.”

“while current political events may seem overwhelming the Arts and the media in the Free World have have always borne witness and provided hope for civilization and now is the time for public and private media outlets and arts producers to resist the forces of authoritarian extremism by doing more to stimulate free thinking and democracy”

Other executives at The Metropolitan Opera

The summary and quote tags on this profile are produced with AI assistance from verified, first-person interview transcripts, then checked by our team to confirm the speaker's identity and the accuracy of every quote. See how we verify →