New Boss at the Met

As palace revolutions go, it was smoothly managed and seemingly benign. Last week, at an unlikely point in midseason, the Metropolitan Opera named a new operating chief and assigned him to lead the company out of a deepening financial crisis. He is Anthony A. Bliss, 61, a Wall Street lawyer, member of the Met board for 25 years and president from 1956 to 1967. In the new post of executive director, he becomes the immediate boss of General Manager Schuyler G. Chapin, 51.

The reason given was that the job of running the Met has become too complex for any one man. Well it may. The company's deficit is expected to be $9 million this year. Offsetting corporate and private contributions have dwindled because of the recession. Ticket sales (worth $10.3 million last year) are off another 3%. Most of the Met's $10 million endowment now has been expended to help meet the $3.8 million a year it costs just to maintain the house. Bliss, who is credited with bringing financial stability to the Jeffrey Ballet, must start full-scale union negotiations next year. The payroll for performers alone accounted for $10.7 million of last season's $24.6 million budget.

Tough Look. Complicating the negotiations will be the Met's desire to cut costs--every performance loses money--by revamping and possibly curtailing future seasons. Already projected is a three-week delay in next fall's opening. Says Bliss: "I am concerned about the human side of this. If there has to be a contraction, I want it to be done in a way that will minimize hardships for the members of the company." Other steps will include a tough look at what can be afforded in the way of new and perhaps less elaborate productions. Asks Bliss rhetorically: "Does grand opera have to be that grand?"

Both Bliss and Chapin stressed that they would be partners, and Bliss said he would not interfere in artistic steps "unless, of course, we cannot afford them." For all that, the move was a clear downgrading of both Chapin and the job of general manager, even though Chapin has done a creditable job for the past two years under extreme crisis conditions. For the first time in its history, the Met's boss will be a man who comes from the board and will remain a member. Insofar as that signals the awakening of an often somnolent board, it is a step forward. But if the result is that money begins to dictate artistic direction, then the Metropolitan may regret the step some day. The company's musical future may well be determined by how firmly General Manager Chapin is able to resist that kind of pressure.

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