Stalin
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 4, 2008
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Nothing demonstrates the decline in US culture and greed of the Wall Street / WarParty axis more than the decline of this once great institution...
The Metropolitan Opera—for generations the stage on which the greatest dramatic tragedies have been performed—now finds itself the setting for one that is all too real. The largest performing arts organization in the United States is staring into the abyss.
The company’s announcement this week of yet another round of devastating cutbacks exposes, with brutal clarity, the incapacity of American capitalism to sustain even its most celebrated cultural institutions. What is unfolding at the Met is not merely a financial crisis; it is a cultural execution in slow motion, and a scathing indictment of a system that has long since abandoned any pretense of nurturing the higher aspirations of human civilization.
The figures speak for themselves. The company has hemorrhaged $120 million from its endowment over just three years, leaving a mere $217.5 million, barely two-thirds of its annual $330 million operating budget. Twenty-two administrative positions will be eliminated. Executives will absorb salary cuts between 4 and 15 percent. The 2026–27 season will offer a pathetic 17 productions, down from 25 before the pandemic.
Most damning of all, the Met is now contemplating the sale of its iconic Marc Chagall murals, “The Triumph of Music” and “The Sources of Music,” commissioned for the opera house’s opening at Lincoln Center in 1966 and valued at $55 million. Management, acutely aware that removing these masterworks would be tantamount to a declaration of bankruptcy, is desperately stipulating that any buyer must leave them hanging in the Grand Tier. The murals would remain, but with a plaque commemorating their new owner as a grotesque visual reminder of institutional humiliation.
To grasp the enormity of this collapse, one must understand what the Metropolitan Opera once represented. Founded in 1883, the Met rapidly became the premier opera house in the Western Hemisphere and one of the greatest in the world. For over a century, virtually every legendary voice in opera graced its stage: Caruso, whose golden tenor made him a household name across America; Maria Callas, the volcanic dramatic soprano who redefined operatic acting; Kirsten Flagstad, Lauritz Melchior, Rosa Ponselle, Renata Tebaldi, Jussi Björling, Birgit Nilsson, Franco Corelli, Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, Jonas Kaufmann and many others. The roster reads like a pantheon of vocal immortals.
..
The growing political reaction that has engulfed American society over the past half-century has taken a devastating toll on culture. The assault on living standards, the decimation of public education, the relentless coarsening of public life—all have contributed to a growing indifference toward the arts. Opera, once accessible to a broad audience, became the preserve of an ever-narrower stratum of the wealthy. Ticket prices at the Met soared to staggering heights—$300, $400, $500 and more for decent seats—placing attendance beyond the reach of ordinary New Yorkers. The art form that had once entered millions of homes through the radio increasingly retreated behind walls of exclusivity.
Yet even the patronage of the rich has proven insufficient. The Met, like opera houses throughout history, has always depended on the largesse of wealthy donors. But the American ruling class, bloated with wealth beyond all historical precedent, has demonstrated a bottomless contempt for sustaining the cultural heritage of humanity.
New York City—the world capital of financialized capitalism, home to the Wall Street banks and hedge funds that have looted trillions from society and presided over levels of inequality that almost defy comprehension—cannot apparently muster the resources to support its own opera company. Berlin maintains three opera houses. Vienna, Milan, Paris, Munich and London sustain thriving companies with substantial public funding. The difference is not that American capitalism lacks the resources. It is that American capitalism, long before Trump, became the spearhead of global social counterrevolution.
comrade stalin
moscow
The Metropolitan Opera—for generations the stage on which the greatest dramatic tragedies have been performed—now finds itself the setting for one that is all too real. The largest performing arts organization in the United States is staring into the abyss.
The company’s announcement this week of yet another round of devastating cutbacks exposes, with brutal clarity, the incapacity of American capitalism to sustain even its most celebrated cultural institutions. What is unfolding at the Met is not merely a financial crisis; it is a cultural execution in slow motion, and a scathing indictment of a system that has long since abandoned any pretense of nurturing the higher aspirations of human civilization.
The figures speak for themselves. The company has hemorrhaged $120 million from its endowment over just three years, leaving a mere $217.5 million, barely two-thirds of its annual $330 million operating budget. Twenty-two administrative positions will be eliminated. Executives will absorb salary cuts between 4 and 15 percent. The 2026–27 season will offer a pathetic 17 productions, down from 25 before the pandemic.
Most damning of all, the Met is now contemplating the sale of its iconic Marc Chagall murals, “The Triumph of Music” and “The Sources of Music,” commissioned for the opera house’s opening at Lincoln Center in 1966 and valued at $55 million. Management, acutely aware that removing these masterworks would be tantamount to a declaration of bankruptcy, is desperately stipulating that any buyer must leave them hanging in the Grand Tier. The murals would remain, but with a plaque commemorating their new owner as a grotesque visual reminder of institutional humiliation.
To grasp the enormity of this collapse, one must understand what the Metropolitan Opera once represented. Founded in 1883, the Met rapidly became the premier opera house in the Western Hemisphere and one of the greatest in the world. For over a century, virtually every legendary voice in opera graced its stage: Caruso, whose golden tenor made him a household name across America; Maria Callas, the volcanic dramatic soprano who redefined operatic acting; Kirsten Flagstad, Lauritz Melchior, Rosa Ponselle, Renata Tebaldi, Jussi Björling, Birgit Nilsson, Franco Corelli, Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, Jonas Kaufmann and many others. The roster reads like a pantheon of vocal immortals.
..
The growing political reaction that has engulfed American society over the past half-century has taken a devastating toll on culture. The assault on living standards, the decimation of public education, the relentless coarsening of public life—all have contributed to a growing indifference toward the arts. Opera, once accessible to a broad audience, became the preserve of an ever-narrower stratum of the wealthy. Ticket prices at the Met soared to staggering heights—$300, $400, $500 and more for decent seats—placing attendance beyond the reach of ordinary New Yorkers. The art form that had once entered millions of homes through the radio increasingly retreated behind walls of exclusivity.
Yet even the patronage of the rich has proven insufficient. The Met, like opera houses throughout history, has always depended on the largesse of wealthy donors. But the American ruling class, bloated with wealth beyond all historical precedent, has demonstrated a bottomless contempt for sustaining the cultural heritage of humanity.
New York City—the world capital of financialized capitalism, home to the Wall Street banks and hedge funds that have looted trillions from society and presided over levels of inequality that almost defy comprehension—cannot apparently muster the resources to support its own opera company. Berlin maintains three opera houses. Vienna, Milan, Paris, Munich and London sustain thriving companies with substantial public funding. The difference is not that American capitalism lacks the resources. It is that American capitalism, long before Trump, became the spearhead of global social counterrevolution.
Twilight at the Met: Capitalism’s contempt for culture
The company’s announcement this week of yet another round of devastating cutbacks exposes the incapacity of American capitalism to sustain even its most celebrated cultural institutions.
www.wsws.org
comrade stalin
moscow
