NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� Metropolitan Opera season attendance dropped slightly following the Trump administration鈥檚 immigration crackdown that coincided with a decrease in tourists to New York.
The Met sold 72% of capacity, matching 2023-24 and down from its 75% projection.
鈥淲e were on track to continue to improve,鈥� Met general manager Peter Gelb said Friday. 鈥淲e were disappointed by the sales in the last two months of the season 鈥� our projections were much higher and I attribute the fact that we didn鈥檛 achieve our sales goals to a significant drop in tourism."
New York City Tourism & Conventions last month reduced its 2025 international visitor projection by 17%, the Met said.
International buyers accounted for 11% of sales, down from the Met's projection of 16% and from about 20% before the coronavirus pandemic.
鈥淚t's unfortunate, but this is the times in which we live,鈥� Gelb said.
The Met said factoring ticket discounts, it realized 60% of potential income, down from 64% in 2023-24 but up from 57% in 2022鈥�23.
鈥淲e were able to sell an equal amount of tickets the last year, but there were more discounted tickets,鈥� Gelb said. 鈥淭his really was the result of the last two months of the season.鈥�
There were 76,000 new ticket buyers, a drop from 85,000 in 2023-24, and the average age of single ticket buyers was 44, the same as in the previous season and a drop from 50 before the pandemic. Subscriptions accounted for just 7% of ticket sales, down from 12-15% before the pandemic,
Gelb said economic uncertainty impacted sales for next season.
鈥淭he stock market jumping up and down made people feel insecure,鈥� he said. 鈥淚n one week we saw an enormous decline in our advance for next season. Then it picked up again.鈥�
Met music director Yannick N茅zet-S茅guin earned $2,045,038 in the year end last July 31, up from $1,307,583, in the previous fiscal year, according to the company鈥檚 tax return released Friday. Gelb earned $1,395,216, roughly the same as his $1,379,032 in 2022-23,and he also accrued $798,205 listed as retirement or deferred compensation.
Assets declined by about $40 million to $467 million, primarily because of an endowment draw following the pandemic.
Among individual productions last season, the highest percentage of tickets sold were for the English-language version of Mozart's 鈥淭he Magic Flute鈥� and a new staging of Verdi's 鈥淎ida,鈥� both at 82%, followed by the company premiere of Jake Heggie's 鈥淢oby-Dick鈥� at 81%
Other new productions included Strauss' 鈥淪alome鈥� (74%), John Adams' 鈥淎ntony and Cleopatra鈥� (65%), Osvaldo Golijov's 鈥淎inadamar鈥� (61%) and Jeanine Tesori鈥檚 鈥淕rounded鈥� (50%).
The best-selling revivals were Puccini's 鈥淭osca鈥� (78%), Tchaikovsky's 鈥淧ique Dame (The Queen of Spades)鈥� and Puccini's La Boh猫me (77% each), Beethoven's 鈥淔idelio鈥� and Rossini's 鈥淚l Barbiere di Siviglia鈥� (76% each) and Mozart's 鈥淟e Nozze di Figaro鈥� (71%).
Lagging were Strauss' 鈥淒ie Frau ohne Schatten鈥� (68%0, Verdi's 鈥淩igoletto鈥� (64%), Offenbach's 鈥淟es Contes d鈥橦offmann鈥� and the German-language version of Mozart's 鈥淒ie Zauberfl枚te鈥� (62% each) and Verdi's 鈥淚l Trovatore鈥� (59%).
Ronald Blum, The Associated Press
