Opera house orchestra releases report asserting General Manager’s “lavish spending on unpopular productions”.

The award-winning Metropolitan Opera Orchestra has released a 14-page report slamming the activities of Peter Gelb and accusing him of “lavish overspending on unpopular productions”. The players, who have been locked in an increasingly acrimonious dispute with their General Manager over the last few months, maintain that Gelb is undermining their “reputation as a top-tier ensemble” and threatening New York City’s tourism and cultural economy.

Gelb has been outspokenly critical of the orchestra and its representative trade unions over recent weeks in a series of high-profile interviews worldwide. In a statement released this morning the orchestra hit back, saying that it “rejects Metropolitan Opera General Manager Peter Gelb’s arguments that the Met’s recent financial troubles are the result of high labor costs”.

It goes on to say: “We believe that the Met’s financial problems are the direct result of a management which seems unable to accept that its current business model is failing, and unwilling to adapt to evidence that its current spending policies are irresponsible and unsustainable. During the Gelb years, the Met’s operating budget has increased by nearly 50 percent (over $105 million US), and...