Plácido Domingo could be up for General Manager Post at Metropolitan Opera
The New York Metropolitan Opera has narrowed its list of candidates for general manager, one of the most powerful arts jobs in the United States, and it includes the tenor Plácido Domingo, two officials at the opera said.Domingo is quietly pursuing the position, meeting individually with several Met board members, the officials said. In addition, he spent time with members of the board's search committee on October 6.
But Domingo made it clear in a letter to the committee that he was appearing "based on my capacity as the head" of the Washington and Los Angeles Operas, and said he had refused to speak earlier with headhunters so that his comments would not be construed as criticism of the outgoing general manager, Joseph Volpe, and the music director, James Levine.
Domingo declined to be interviewed but said through a spokesman, "Having made artistic and business plans at both the Washington National Opera and the Los Angeles Opera as far ahead as 2008–09, I have every intention of following through with these plans." He did not elaborate.
The board is believed to want to settle on a choice as early as the end of the year, to give the new general manager time to arrive for next season. That would provide a season's overlap with Volpe, who plans to retire at the end of the 2005–06 season. He has been with the company for 40 years, the last 14 as general manager.
Other candidates on the list, according to the officials, include Deborah Borda, executive director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic; Lesley Koenig, general manager of the San Francisco Ballet, who directed Cosě fan tutte for the Met in 1996, and Peter Gelb, president of the Sony Classical record label, who is expected to become head of the merged Sony and BMG classical division.
25/10/2004
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