<\/p>\n
New York\u2019s Metropolitan Opera has announced a round of layoffs, pay cuts and program reductions as it grapples with financial strain.<\/p>\n
The organization cited problems left over from the Covid pandemic, which drastically affected performing arts shows across the US and internationally.<\/p>\n
The cuts include salary reductions of between 4% and 15% for 35 executives earning more than $150,000, including the Met Opera\u2019s general manager Peter Gelb, who earned approximately $1.4m in 2024, the New York Times reported<\/a> on Tuesday.<\/p>\n Other senior figures affected include music director Yannick N\u00e9zet-S\u00e9guin who earned $2.05m in the most recently disclosed fiscal year.<\/p>\n The measures also include 22 layoffs among the company\u2019s 284 administrative staff and further reductions in programming. Next season will be cut from 18 productions to 17, with the Met postponing a planned staging of Mussorgsky\u2019s Khovanshchina, a 19th-century Russian opera.<\/a><\/p>\n A spokesperson for the Met Opera<\/a> confirmed the cuts to the Guardian, saying: \u201cThese staff reductions, combined with some temporary salary reductions and other cost-cutting measures, will reduce the Met\u2019s expenses by $15m for the remaining six months of the Met\u2019s fiscal year, and by another $25m in the Met\u2019s following fiscal year.\u201d<\/p>\n The measures follow a tentative agreement <\/a>struck last September between the Met Opera and Saudi Arabia. Valued at about $200m, the deal would see the company \u2013 which has an annual operating budget of $330m <\/a>\u2013 perform each winter for five years at the Royal Diriyah Opera House near Riyadh, in return <\/a>for Saudi subsidies.<\/p>\n Speaking to the New York Times, Gelb said the cuts were prompted in part by delays and uncertainty surrounding the Saudi agreement.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been assured that it\u2019s going to go forward. But we have been waiting for some time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The Met Opera spokesperson said: \u201cThe cuts are necessary while the Met awaits its pending agreement with Saudi Arabia and the implementation of other revenue-generating initiatives. The Met is committed to maintaining the highest artistic standards while ensuring its present and future financial sustainability.\u201d<\/p>\n Other measures floated by Gelb include the possible sale of its theater\u2019s naming rights, as well as a potential sale of its two Marc Chagall murals, valued at a combined $55m, though any sale would require the works to remain in place at the organization\u2019s city venue.<\/p>\n Gelb also said the opera company may look towards renting out its auditorium to pop artists on nights when it is not running its own programs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.theguardian.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" New York\u2019s Metropolitan Opera has announced a round of layoffs, pay cuts and program reductions as it grapples with financial strain. The organization cited problems left over from the Covid pandemic, which drastically affected performing arts shows across the US and internationally. The cuts include salary reductions of between 4% and 15% for 35 executives […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2243360,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2243359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/New-Yorks-Met-Opera-announces-\u2018necessary-layoffs-and-pay-cuts.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2243359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2243359"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2243359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2243361,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2243359\/revisions\/2243361"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2243360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2243359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2243359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2243359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}