Tickets, etc.

Yes, Sieglinde's been decidedly mum about her arrangements for this coming Met season. But she has quite a bit to say about it, particularly about the 'innovations' that the Gelb regime has instituted, ostensibly to distinguish itself further from the oh-so-20th-century Volpe years. She'll open her big mouth once she gets her tickets. But first off, have you gays seen the new Single Ticket Calendar? More of a booklet now than a calendar, it can no longer hang conveniently on the tackboard by the old work desk. That blows. It was the calendar of my entire life, used to plan out dinners with friends and trips to sunnier places-- never mind that Sundays weren't indicated. Now it's just another mall catalogue. And the page layout of the months, more cluttered-- used to be that the names of the operas were in boldface, making them easily scannable on the page. Now they're hiding in italics. I could go on. But I need to use this energy to organize myself and plan out the entire season. The entire season! (Mumbling: Volpe at least had the courtesy of dividing the season into two ticket sale blocs, which gave working class folks like me some credit relief. Now, by selling tickets for the entire season, it's become about generating great fear of being shut out of sold out evenings in order to induce one into giving the Met a huge lumpsum of high-interest Mastercard money more than a month before the season prima, some for performances in April and May that will probably see 4 or 5 cast changes, based on the current rate ... Get them to commit early and often-- indeed a stroke of business brilliance, Mr. Gelb. But really not that nice.) I'm stressed, gotta go.