In the game of creative survival, Met’s up by a lot

Getting back to DVDs and CDs of stage performances and why the heck the professional-theater industry can’t help itself financially by allowing its work to be recorded and sold … I ran across this release about Peter Gelb, general manager of New York’s Metropolitan Opera, last night. It credits Gelb with doing for the Met what the rest of the performing-arts community has been desperate to do for about, oh, 50 years, namely earn more income and attract younger audiences:

“Peter Gelb has been in charge at the Met since 2006, and has succeeded in reinventing opera by making it accessible to everyone through multiple distribution modes such as live HD broadcasts in cinemas, the Internet, satellite radio and mobile platforms.

“Under Peter Gelb’s management, the Met, which just celebrated its 125th anniversary, has managed to develop an audacious policy to reach out to a wider and younger audience. The introduction of public rehearsals, “last minute” tickets at $20, and the launch of the collection The Met: Live in HD – winner of the prestigious Peabody and Emmy Awards – have all contributed to attracting a new, broader, younger audience.”

Gelb will be the keynote speaker for the 2010 international MidemNet event, a forum for music professionals about the music business in the digital age. Maybe he should be talking to Actors Equity Association and the legitimate theater community, instead.