Hospitality Design - October 2011 - 69

interview: peter gelb

perspectives

Photos of Peter Gelb and David Rockwell by Jeffrey Mosier

meeting of the minds
David Rockwell in conversation with Peter Gelb, general manager of the Metropolitan Opera
DR: I wanted to talk about transformation, which, in the world of architecture and restaurants and hotels, is more of a subtext, but my contention is equally relevant. I thought focusing on transformation was interesting—particularly in a world where software matters more and things change quickly. My earliest memories of New York were theater and restaurants, places that create a deep experience. PG: You certainly have been responsible for transforming the restaurant experience in a huge way. DR: I think architects place such a premium on permanence, but in fact, nothing is really permanent. In hospitality, there’s an overlap. I’m wondering, as someone who is acknowledged for bringing transformation to the Met, do you think that’s critical to keeping the Met relevant? PG: Well, any business, and any art form that’s been around a long time, has to go through an ever-changing process. It has to be constantly transforming itself if it wants to survive. And even businesses that think that everything is okay, ﬁnd out in a very unexpected and unpleasant way, that it’s not. So, coasting doesn’t work in any form of life. Unless it’s downhill skiing. I was appointed to run the Met partly because I had not run another opera house, and because the members of the board who chose me realized a change was absolutely necessary. They didn’t quite understand what kind of transformation it would be, but they knew they were losing their audience. DR: As long as you don’t change what people don’t want changed. PG: People don’t always know what they want or don’t want changed. There’s a kind of kneejerk [reaction] amongst an older audience that change is something to be very afraid of. But, numbers don’t lie, and the Met is losing its audience. It’s getting older and smaller. The question is whether it would be a change that would be successful or not. DR: I hadn’t really thought of this before, but I know a little bit about how far ahead it takes to put on a production. So, change or transformation at the Met has to, by deﬁnition, happen over a very extended period of time. PG: Absolutely. I knew that I couldn’t wait three or four years. Operas, as you point out, are planned so far ahead, I did not have the luxury to wait until the cycle that had been planned to play out. So I immediately jumpstarted a number of productions, in a way that typically is not done in the opera world. My ﬁrst opening night as general manager was [ﬁlm director] Anthony Minghella’s Madame Butterﬂy. And that sent a signal that the Met was looking at things differently, aesthetically. It was a huge win, and as a producer, you know and I know, things can always look great on paper. But you never know until the curtain goes up and then comes down at the end of an evening whether you really have a success or not. At the same time, we were changing things by inviting top stage directors who had never worked here before because opera is one of the most complicated, if not the most complicated, performing art forms. It’s not just a huge theater and a stage that has to be ﬁlled with scenery. It has to work with an orchestra and a cast of very fragile opera singers. DR: Many of whom, I assume, resist any kind of transformation. PG: What’s fortunate is that there’s a whole new generation of opera singers who believe that acting is important and that full representation of your characters, through the singing and the acting of a role, is what makes the performance. They are also very fragile. They have to get on the stage in front of 4,000 people and not crack their high notes. DR: So it’s artist and athlete. PG: It’s the most athletic and exciting and thrilling of the performing arts for that reason. DR: Someone else who’s contributing to this issue is Richard Wurman, who founded the TED conference. The ﬁrst time I was invited to speak at TED, Richard made it clear that he wanted people who were talking about things they were amateurs at, in the best sense—things you were passionate about. Do you feel like part of the beneﬁt you’ve had in creating a transformation

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October 2011

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Hospitality Design - October 2011