Peter Gelb doesn’t have any intention of leaving his position as General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera.

In a new interview with El Pais, Gelb said that even though his contract as General Manager ends in 2027, he wants to continue in his position. He said, “I feel ready to continue beyond that date if the board of the Met wants me to.”

Gelb began his tenure in 2006 and has brought the HD initiative to the Metropolitan Opera as well as numerous Metropolitan Opera premieres.

In the interview Gelb also spoke about the HD audience and revealed that the audience has decreased since the pandemic. He said, “Our audience globally is about 55 percent of what it was before the pandemic. We still have a significant audience. We reached countries across eleven time zones, but whereas we used to have over 400,000 viewers per broadcast, now we have around 200,000.”

He also spoke about his Ukraine initiatives and didn’t;t hold back when asked about Valery Gergiev’s canceled Italian concert. “He’s a great conductor. But he sacrificed his conducting to become Putin’s leading cultural representative,” Gelb said.

This is the latest interview the General Manager does following a media blitz that saw him promote the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra as well as take swings at the Royal Opera House for hiring Anna Netrebko.

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