NEW YORK (AP) - In a cost-cutting move, the Metropolitan Opera is seeking concessions from its unions as contract negotiations get under way.
The company’s general manager, Peter Gelb, says expenses have to be cut in order to produce a sustainable business model in the future.
He is leading the negotiations with the company’s 16 unions himself for the first time.
The Met and the unions declined to discuss details of the concessions.
But some of the unions have called on the company to rein in the cost and number of its productions.
The Met ran a $2.8 million deficit last season on a budget of $327 million. It has reported a drop in box-office revenue and increasing costs.
Its endowment was valued at $253 million at the end of July.
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