Metropolitan Opera (a) Case Analysis

Metropolitan Opera (A) Case Analysis

To figure out what should Peter Gelb do going forward, we need to see the goal of the Metropolitan Opera. As one of the premiere Opera Houses in America, Metropolitan Opera aims at “sustaining, encouraging, and promoting musical art, and educating the general public about music, particularly opera” Presenting operas in the highest quality, featuring the world's most talented performers and the broadest range of works are the keys of Metropolitan Opera’s mission. Also, the Met does not repeat performances except the tours and recording sessions and deliver only 25 performances per season to give audience a new and lively experience every time. At the same time, in order to attract the youth, it has innovated new productions even though they are relatively risky for only appealing to a niche.

However, the popularity of operas is decreasing while with its high quality and large-scale production, reaching breakeven is difficult for the Met Opera. Therefore, alternative ways of increasing the sales of tickets and donations are important for its operation. To increase the revenue, the Met needs to understand its variable audience groups, including the casual attendees who prefer the more popular operas with lower priced tickets, the subscribers, the opera savvy, and the new generation. To solve the conflict between bringing revenues and educating the society with aesthetic quality, I honestly think Gelb’s introduction of HD broadcasting and “Rush Tickets” with lower cost are good moves for developing new market and new audiences. Collaborating with large movie theater chains, the Met is able to enhance market penetration and therefore, increase the amount of audience – nearly 300,00 people watched the first season of six live simulcasts – while the ticket sales are actually rising.

In the future, carrying on the market penetration will still be a significant move for its survival in the trend that opera becomes less popular. In the meantime, I think the “Live in HD” program is just an evolution of its traditional, somewhat outdated radiobroadcasting program. They actually have the same function of educating the society. The only difference is that the “Live in HD” program possesses higher quality thanks to the technology. This program actually solves the conflict between bringing in revenue and educating the society. As a result I suggest Gelb should keep this program. As for the “Rush Ticket” strategy, I do not think it is a move that deteriorate the aesthetic value of the Met but rather, a move that removes “the veil of the elitism” and delivers the beauty of the opera to the greater range of general people. I also think it is a smart strategy to continue in the future. Next, since the average age of the Met’s audience is already 65, a group with lower customer-life value, for its future, penetrating into the youth culture market is essential. To develop the youth into opera fans, Gelb should keep on producing new repertoire to satisfy their changing tastes in artistic and culture genre. Last, there is a slightly change for Gelb regarding to his new initiatives. I think the distribution of free television, DVDs, CDs, and online downloads are unnecessary. As we all know that a thing is valued if it is rare, so to maintain the artistic value of the Met Opera, distribution of it shows would be counter-productive. People usually do not treasure the thing that comes easy, in this case, a commercial product that can be bought from a store or even free on television and Internet. Without these distribution forms, people’s want of it would be strengthen then as the artistic value of its operas will still be a treasure of our society.

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