EDUCATION Comments turned off

Ivory Tower Hypocrite: George Mason University Female students censored for concerns about men using women’s restrooms. by Sara Dogan

Posted By on April 11th, 2025

https://www.frontpagemag.com/ivory-tower-hypocrite-george-mason-university/

Editor’s note: Over the past several decades, few places in America have become more hostile to free speech than our universities. Yet in the wake of rising anti-Semitism and the pro-Hamas campus rallies and occupations that were sparked by the terror group’s October 7 massacre, university administrators seem to have had a sudden change of heart.

The Freedom Center is exposing the most egregious perpetrators of these double standards in free expression as the Top Ten Ivory Tower Hypocrites. These are universities whose leaders have permitted woke leftist activists to run roughshod over campus rules and violate codes of conduct with impunity, while failing to extend even basic free speech protections to students and faculty with opposing views. George Mason University is #9 on our list.

#9: George Mason University

When George Mason University played host to egregious pro-Hamas protests, university administrators defended the demonstrators on free speech grounds. But when two female law students at the university expressed their concerns about gender-confused biological men using the women’s restrooms on campus, the university quickly enacted legal measures to silence them and prevent any further discussion of the issue.

GMU has a lengthy resume of anti-Semitic and pro-terror activism. Just days after the Hamas massacre that killed 1200 and resulted in the rape, mutilation and kidnapping of hundreds more, SJP held an “Emergency Palestine Protest – Support the Resistance.” During this event, SJP’s chants glorified the Hamas terrorists, some of whom gained entry into Israel via hang gliders: “They’ve got tanks we’ve got hang gliders, glory to the resistance fighters;” “glory to the resistance fighters;” “settler, settler go back home, Palestine is not your home.” An advertisement for the rally stated: “SJP Mason calls on the GMU community to support the struggle of our people against colonialism and the zionist occupation. It is our duty to echo the calls for liberation of our homeland and our people, from the river to the sea. Show up and show out for Palestine, and let GMU know that we will rise against the occupation!”

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Christopher F. Rufo, David Reaboi How “Tesla Takedown” Activists Fool the Public The campaign against Elon Musk’s company is hardly a grassroots movement.

Posted By on April 11th, 2025

https://www.city-journal.org/article/elon-musk-tesla-takedown-protests-activists

Last month, a wave of more than 200 protests targeting Tesla properties erupted across the United States. The media portrayed this movement, officially branded the “Tesla Takedown,” as a spontaneous grassroots backlash against CEO Elon Musk’s role in dismantling waste and fraud in the U.S. federal bureaucracy. Each of these demonstrations appears to have been sparsely attended, but both the number of protest sites and the timeline of events suggest a coordinated effort.

On February 21, Rolling Stone published an article by activist-filmmaker Alex Winter describing the genesis of the Tesla Takedown protest campaign. Within two weeks of its publication, multiple Tesla properties were attacked with incendiary devices, and three men were arrested for separate attempts to firebomb Tesla locations in Salem, Oregon; Loveland, Colorado; and Charleston, South Carolina.

If the mainstream press accounts—as well as Winter’s own description—are to be believed, the fire-bombings and protests were unrelated. When mentioning the protests at all in the context of the violence, some outlets described them only as “dozens of peaceful protests at Tesla dealerships and factories.” Stories did not touch on how, more often than not, violent and nonviolent tactics reinforce one another and work toward the same ends.

A closer look suggests that Tesla is the latest target of an activist and organizing ecosystem that the Left has built over decades. That infrastructure manufactures, amplifies, and strategically uses protests and “direct actions” to force concessions or policy change. These direct actions range from nonviolent (sit-ins or flash mobs) to violent (arson, harassment, or even assassination), all meant to focus attention through the drama of real-world confrontation. The goal is to bypass the normal channels of democratic decision-making, obtaining desired ends through minoritarian pressure campaigns.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The insane campaign to decriminalise Hamas A UK legal firm says it’s an abuse of ‘human rights’ to brand Hamas a terrorist outfit. Pull the other one. Brendan O’Neill

Posted By on April 11th, 2025

https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/04/10/the-insane-campaign-to-decriminalise-hamas/

It’s safe to say Britain did not cover itself in glory this week. We’ve had legal bigwigs warning that we risk resurrecting the crime of blasphemy following the charging of a man for burning the Koran. We saw the safeguarding minister, Jess Phillips, announce that the UK government can’t be arsed with inquiries into the industrial-scale abuse of working-class girls by gangs of mostly Pakistani Muslim men. And now, the icing on this rancid cake: British lawyers are agitating for Hamas to no longer be designated as a terrorist organisation.

Yes, a UK legal firm is making a plea for Hamas to be ‘un-proscribed’. It’s called Riverway Law. It’s making representations for Dr Mousa Abu Marzouk, Hamas’s head of international affairs. Their case is that Britain’s use of the term ‘terrorist’ against Hamas is a breach of its supporters’ human rights. I’m not making this up. It ‘unlawfully restricts’ their freedom of speech, apparently. Welcome to modern Britain, where you must never desecrate the Koran or expect an inquiry into rape gangs, but you might soon be free to say: ‘I love Hamas.’

The lawyers have submitted a 106-page legal application to the home secretary. It wails about how unfair it is that Britain brands Hamas a terror group. Yes, how dare we use the word terrorist to describe a movement that sent thousands of armed hysterics to slit the throats of Jews on 7 October 2023? Hamas is a ‘resistance movement’, the application says, whose aim is to ‘liberate Palestine’. The trouble is, Hamas, that those of us still in possession of a moral compass know what this means: you want to ‘liberate’ the Middle East of its Jews. You want to banish, with savage violence, the Jews from their homeland. And that’s terrorism. Actually, it’s worse: it’s the dream of genocide wrapped in the lie of ‘resistance’.

Hamas’s military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, was proscribed in 2001. Its political wing was proscribed in 2021, when the then Tory government decided that the distinction between the two was ‘artificial’. The proscription means it’s a criminal offence for anyone here to be a member of Hamas or to drum up support for it. Waving the Hamas flag and wearing pro-Hamas clothing is a crime, too. Hamas – brace yourselves for this – is now citing the European Convention on Human Rights against the UK government. Your proscription of our lovely resistance movement is an assault on our British supporters’ ‘freedom of speech’, it says.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Ali Khamenei’s revealing glimpse into the Islamic Republic’s fears Saeed Ghasseminejad

Posted By on April 11th, 2025

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/beltway-confidential/3372482/ali-khamenei-revealing-glimpse-islamic-republic-fears/?utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-

When Iran’s supreme leader speaks, the world expects a predictable mix of praise for his Palestinian allies, blustery predictions of Israel’s demise, and bitter denunciations of the Great Satan (the United States). Any departure from Ali Khamenei’s usual script is worth noting.

In his recent Eid al-Fitr prayer sermon, Khamenei added something as surprising as it was revealing: an emphatic expression of anxiety unusual for a regime that normally projects omnipotence.

Of course, his sermons are rarely purely religious but rather signals of policy and national sentiment from the commanding heights of the Islamic Republic. This year, Khamenei laid bare the nightmare haunting the regime’s leadership: the specter of foreign military intervention, the persistent possibility for mass internal unrest framed as “sedition,” and the targeted assassination of top officials. Most telling, perhaps, was the implicit acknowledgment that the convergence of these threats could pose no less than an existential challenge to the regime, especially after a series of Israeli strategic victories and a toughening of American resolve.

For the leader of any power to reveal so much vulnerability should be taken seriously. If the leader is worried, his followers cannot be far behind. Cracks in the armor of authoritarian regimes tend to spread when morale is shaken.

Ghasseminejad lists several threats to the Islamic Republic:

First among his articulated fears is the possibility of an external attack. Khamenei addressed this directly, stating, “If malice comes from outside, which is unlikely, they will certainly receive a strong reciprocal blow.” The qualifier “unlikely” attempts to project confidence, yet the very act of addressing the threat underscores its presence in Tehran’s strategic calculus. In a region simmering with tension, particularly involving long-standing adversaries such as Israel and the United States, this preemptive warning serves both as deterrence and possibly as preparation for the domestic audience

FOREIGN POLICY, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

There Is No Private Sector in China: The US Needs Officially to Restrict Cooperation with China by Anna Mahjar Barducci

Posted By on April 11th, 2025

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21538/china-private-sector

A larger problem, apart from tariffs, is that China does not have a private sector.

The Chinese Communist Party is the founding and only ruling party of the People’s Republic of China. Hence, all Chinese companies directly support the CCP’s priorities and ambitions to replace the United States as the world’s leading superpower. This plan obviously has little that might be good for the US, its national security, or its interests abroad.

China has openly been pursuing a policy of threatening to take over pro-Western neighbors such as Taiwan, the Philippines, South Korea, the Solomon Islands, India and Japan. In addition, Chinese warships have reportedly been invading Australian airspace and sailing alarmingly close to Australia. The CCP has also recently been trying to make it a “new normal” to have around Taiwan drills that at any time could turn into combat.

It has become increasingly clear that China’s plan to take over Taiwan and other neighbors is a question not of “if” but “when.” It is therefore crucial to understand that there is no private sector in China.

In the 14th Five Year Plan, the CCP identified the following industries as critical to China’s economic development: Artificial intelligence, semiconductors, robotic technology and biotechnology, to name a few.

Investing in China’s “private sector” underwrites China’s expansionist ambitions in Asia and enables it to continue claiming ownership of the South and East China Seas, as well as everything near it, to control world trade.

Investing in China’s “private sector” — effectively the same as its military — destroys the West’s interests, weakens its allies and fast-tracks the CCP in reaching its goals of seizing Taiwan and other neighbors, and possibly triggering a war with the United States. Investing in China’s “private sector” underwrites China’s expansionist ambitions in Asia and enables it to continue claiming ownership of the South and East China Seas, as well as everything near it, to control world trade.

US President Donald J. Trump’s current trade stand-off with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has already induced some Chinese companies, such as Shein, BYD, TikTok and Temu’s parent company PDD Holdings to move away from China and have induced some Western companies – including Apple, Dell, Hasbro, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, Stanley Black and Decker, Foxconn, Nintendo, BYD Auto, TSMC, Intel, Mazda, Google and Samsung also to move away or diversify.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Hey, About That Not-So-‘Surprising’ Drop In Inflation …

Posted By on April 11th, 2025

https://issuesinsights.com/2025/04/11/hey-about-that-not-so-surprising-drop-in-inflation/

No doubt you’ve already heard the news that inflation actually declined in March on a month-to-month basis for the first time in almost three years, and fell to 2.4% on a yearly basis. This is horrible news, at least for the Democratic Party, which continues to hope for the worst under President Donald Trump.

Economists had actually expected inflation to rise for the month. Instead, this is the first time since July 2022 that the index declined. “Surprising,” said a number of headlines.

Recall for a moment last year’s bold promise from Trump on inflation: “Prices will come down and come down dramatically and come down fast,” he said.

So far, so good, as Trump himself noted on X.

Despite Trump’s imposition of tariffs on much of the rest of the world, in particular China, which he had promised to do, his moves so far have had zero impact on inflation and are unlikely to for months to come.

Democrats are in a tough spot. Unable to tar Trump with President Joe Biden’s inflation disaster, Democrats earlier found what they believed was a point of inflation vulnerability for Trump: The soaring cost of eggs!

ISRAEL Comments turned off

GOOD NEWS FROM ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

Posted By on April 10th, 2025

https://verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com/

My first Passover in America was a somber affair. The Jewish people confronted the news that one in every three Jews in the world was exterminated by the Nazis. The gates of Palestine were tightly closed by the duplicitous British White Papers. From depression and shock Zionism gave us hope and energy. Only five years after the Warsaw ghetto uprising during Passover in 1943, when Jews took up knives and forks and homemade Molotov cocktails to resist the barbarians, on May 14, 1948 the Jewish State of Israel was proclaimed and the world’s displaced Jews joined their brethren in Israel in an epic rescue.

Fast forward to the present where Michael Ordman provides a weekly catalog of Israel’s incredible and outsize participation and contributions in science, technology, water conservation, agriculture, medicine, and social institutions in the world while remaining a freedom loving democracy in a geographic archipelago of modern-day pharaohs. Happy and sweet Passover to all who observe and a happy and peaceful Easter Sunday on April 27th to all our Christian friends.   rsk

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Good progress on pancreatic cancer treatment. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s Silexion Therapeutics reported that its SIL-204 pancreatic cancer treatment effectively reduces primary tumor growth and secondary cancer spread. Silexion ‘s first generation LODER treatment already had good results in Phase 2 trials on “simple” cancers.

https://silexion.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/silexion-therapeutics-announces-completion-of1.pdf

New way to treat resistant cancers. Israel’s MitoCarex Bio has developed its MITOLINE™ algorithm and other advanced computational capabilities to identify small molecules that can fight cancer. MitoCarex has just been acquired by Israel’s N2OFF (see here previously) which is also injecting $1 million of investment.

https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/n2off-inc-enters-agreement-acquire-mitocarex-bio-ltd-expand-cancer-therapeutics-portfolio   `https://mitocarexbio.com/

How cells respond to treatment. Researchers from Tel Aviv University have developed scNET that tracks gene expression at the single-cell level in response to various therapies. It has exciting implications for research into cancer treatments and their effect on the tumor, pro-cancer supporting cells, and anti-cancer immune cells.

https://www.gov.il/en/pages/novel-ai-based-method-reveals-how-cells-respond-to-drug-treatments-1-apr-2025

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41592-025-02627-0

What’s happening inside? Prof Hossam Haick of Israel’s Technion and his team have developed a new method for monitoring molecular processes deep within tissue. Their system uses chemical tomography to analyze volatile organic compounds (VOCs). It can help early cancer detection in many organs of the body.

https://www.technion.ac.il/en/blog/article/breakthrough-in-noninvasive-monitoring-of-molecular-processes-in-deep-tissue/

Real-time blood tests. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s Inspira Technologies (see here previously) announced positive results from the clinical study at Sheba Hospital of its AI-powered HYLA blood sensor. Its real-time blood monitoring enables early diagnosis and personalized care without the need for intermittent blood draws.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/inspira-technologies-announces-positive-results-from-clinical-study-of-hyla-blood-sensor-achieving-96-accuracy-302391551.html

Combatting gum disease and more. (TY Nevet) Hebrew University of Jerusalem scientists have discovered how the bacteria Porphyromonas gingivalis causes periodontitis infection (gum disease). Preventing it binding to protein CD47 prevents periodontitis, and its correlation with cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s, and cancer.

https://www.afhu.org/2025/02/24/new-approach-to-suppress-oral-bacteria-that-cause-periodontal-and-other-disease-symptoms-discovered-by-hu-researchers/  https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2405534121

US approves rotator cuff repair system. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s Arcuro Medical (see here previously) has received US FDA clearance for its SuperBall-RC system for use in rotator cuff (shoulder) repair procedures. Arcuro’s SuperBall technology platform has now successfully been used in over 5,000 meniscus (knee) repairs.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/arcuro-medical-announces-fda-510k-clearance-for-the-superball-rc-for-rotator-cuff-indications-302387137.html

From cultivated meat to muscle therapy. Israel’s Profuse (see here previously) which specializes in the laboratory cultivation of muscle tissue for non-animal meat, has launched a new technology and program for preventing and restoring muscle lost by the growing use of weight-loss treatments, aging, and cancer.

https://startupsmagazine.co.uk/article-profuse-launches-drug-discovery-platform-prevention-muscle-loss

https://profuse-tech.com/drug-discovery/

Combining complementary and conventional medicine. Israel’s Treat Me (see here) has developed an AI-driven platform that allows practitioners to create tailor-made treatment plans that bridge Western medicine, complementary therapies (e.g. Chinese medicine, naturopathy, reflexology) and cutting-edge research.

https://www.israel21c.org/mom-turns-medical-nightmare-into-an-integrative-care-dream/ https://www.treatme.ltd/

Rehabilitation conference. (TY Yanky) Israel hosted the “Lifetime Partnership” International Rehabilitation Conference in Tel Aviv. It attracted medical and rehabilitation experts from militaries, defense ministries, and health departments in England, Thailand, Germany, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Brazil and Canada.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-hosts-first-ever-international-rehabilitation-conference-in-wake-of-oct-7/

POSITIVE NEWS IN A WAR

Woman of Courage. One of the seven International Women of Courage 2025 awarded by the US State Department was Israel’s Amit Sousanna. Amit uses her voice to courageously advocate for survivors by using her own lived example to describe the trauma she suffered as a hostage of the October 7th attack.

https://worldisraelnews.com/watch-former-hostage-amit-soussana-receives-us-state-departments-international-woman-of-courage-award/ https://www.state.gov/2025-international-women-of-courage-award/#amit-soussana

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPFKZG_J9YI

Gadi returns to Turner stadium. This scene was too emotional not to include in this newsletter. Ex-hostage Gadi Moses was welcomed back to Turner stadium, the home of his favorite soccer club Beersheva.  Also read his latest interview.  https://unitedwithisrael.org/watch-released-hostage-gadi-moses-honored-at-soccer-game/

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-847026

Shot in the back but recovered. Female IDF soldier Stav Bachar survived Oct 2023 despite Hamas terrorists shooting her in the back, abdomen, and pelvis, and leaving her for dead. If you can access X, see her now.

https://www.jfeed.com/news-israel/s3ckd9  https://x.com/VividProwess/status/1906534415582339547

The most wounded soldier forges on. On Oct 7 2023, Alon Kaminer’s life changed forever when a premature explosion in combat left him clinically dead and with devastating injuries. He lost his leg, right arm, left hand, and an eye. He was clinically dead but he survived, and with unshakable courage and resilience, he fights on.

https://worldisraelnews.com/watch-the-most-wounded-idf-soldier-forges-on/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-L49-PUlreA

Battlefield lessons save civilian lives. Israeli hospitals, such as Laniado in Netanya, have been applying many of the advanced methods developed by the IDF during the war. Whole blood is given to wounded soldiers before evacuation, and this technique is now used in Laniado if patients have insufficient platelets for surgery.

https://laniadosupporters.org.il/laniado-applies-advanced-idf-methods/

Donor’s lungs blew the shofar at his memorial. Last year, Kfir Zar received a double lung transplant from fallen IDF soldier Dor Zimel (see here previously). At the memorial to Dor, Kfir used Dor’s lungs to blow a shofar for him.  https://inspirationfromzion.com/2025/03/31/how-do-we-heal-from-the-trauma-of-this-war/

https://www.ynetnews.com/health_science/article/hknxtehzc

$1.3 billion for rebuilding Gaza envelope. Israel’s Knesset has approved a comprehensive recovery plan aimed at rebuilding communities located within 7 km. (4.3 miles) of the Gaza border that were severely impacted by the Hamas attack of Oct. 7, 2023.

https://www.jns.org/knesset-approves-1-3b-recovery-plan-for-gaza-border-communities/

From evacuation to action. (TY Mara) Students from JNF-USA-supported Kiryat Shmona University have returned to clean up the battered city. And young educators from JNF-USA’s network of organizations including MAKOM (see here previously) have relocated to Israel’s North and South to revive the communities.

https://www.jnf.org/jnf-blog/post/blog/be-inspired–jewish-national-fund-usa-is-bringing-young-people-back-to-the-north-and-south   https://www.jnf.org/ways-to-help/support-israel

Volunteering led to romance. Rebecca Starr and Benjamin (Benji) Katz are among countless Diaspora Jews who immediately volunteered to join the war effort in Israel after Oct 7 2023. They met at the NGO Pitchon-Lev, which is providing aid to IDF soldiers and Oct 7 survivors. Rebecca and Benji are to be married in July.

https://www.jns.org/a-love-story-born-from-the-tragic-day-of-oct-7/

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Ten Tariff Questions Never Asked The real trade war wasn’t Trump’s—it was decades of lopsided deals, deficits, and double standards America tolerated while others profited. By Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on April 10th, 2025

https://amgreatness.com/2025/04/10/ten-tariff-questions-never-asked/

1. Trump’s So-Called “Trade War.”

Many call the American effort to obtain either tariff parity or a reduction in the roughly $1 trillion trade deficit and fifty years of consecutive trade deficits “a trade war.” But then what do they call the policies of the past half-century by Europe, Asia, China, and others to ensure asymmetrical tariffs, pseudo-health and security trade restrictions, and large surpluses?

A trade peace? Trade fairness?

2. Do Nations Prefer Surpluses or Deficits?

Why do most nations prefer trade surpluses and protective tariffs?

Are Europe, Asia, China, and others stupid? Are they suicidal in continuing their trade surpluses and protective or asymmetrical tariffs?

Is the United States uniquely brilliant in maintaining a half-century of cumulative trade deficits? Do Americans alone discover the advantages of a $1 trillion annual trade deficit and small or nonexistent tariffs?

Why don’t America’s trading partners prefer deficits like ours—given we supposedly believe they are either advantageous or perhaps irrelevant?

3. Would Our Trade Partners Prefer to Trade Places With Us?

Would our trade partners prefer to have America’s supposed benefits of a $1-trillion trade deficit? Would the United States then “suffer” like they do by running up $200 billion annual surpluses?

4. What if Wages Went Up at the Rate of the Stock Market?

What would now be the reaction of the stock market if over the last decade wages had increased at the rate of stocks—and the stocks at the rate of wages?

5. Is Wall Street’s Panic Based on What Might Happen—Or What Is Happening?

Is Wall Street’s meltdown a fear of what might happen in the future? Or is it reacting to March’s latest jobs report that there were 93,000 more jobs created than predicted? Was the Wall Street panic predicated on reports of much lower oil prices? Did the furor arise over the March inflation report that the annualized inflation rate dipped to 2.6% per year?

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Is Europe Still Fighting Lost Energy Wars? by Drieu Godefridi

Posted By on April 10th, 2025

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21523/eu-greenpeace-dakota-access-pipeline

The signal is clear: in the United States, no one any longer jokes with those who hinder the economy and trample on the rights of others under the guise of idealism.

Greenpeace would apparently like organizations such as itself to directly or indirectly cause hundreds of millions of dollars worth of damage, while preventing any court from intervening.

The applicability of the EU anti-SLAPP directive to the judgment in question is doubtful…

It looks as if the EU, through this directive, once again is trying to dictate the law on American soil. Transatlantic tensions, already fuelled by trade disputes, issues of free speech, NATO funding and the war in Ukraine, would mount further.

In a spectacular decision, a court in North Dakota ordered the environmentalist organizations that comprise Greenpeace to pay $665 million in damages for “defamation, trespass, nuisance, civil conspiracy and other acts,” to Energy Transfer, the company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline.

The news came down like a thunderbolt. In a spectacular decision, the Morton County courthouse in Mandan, North Dakota, ordered the environmentalist organizations that comprise Greenpeace to pay $665 million in damages to Energy Transfer, the company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline. The figure appears a monumental slap in the face to Greenpeace, which was sued by Energy Transfer for “defamation, trespass, nuisance, civil conspiracy and other acts,” following demonstrations against the pipeline project in 2016 and 2017.

The North Dakota jury did not pull any punches. Greenpeace was declared liable; its methods illegal and its actions harmful. Greenpeace has already announced that it will appeal.

Beyond the legal wrangling, this ruling raises the question: what if this case marks the start of a major transatlantic rift between an America defending its energy interests and a Europe mired in its green romanticism?

P.C.-CULTURE Comments turned off

Paul du Quenoy The Met’s “Big Bet” on Contemporary Opera Looks Like a Loser General manager Peter Gelb’s gamble on new works has failed to fill seats—or steady the company’s shaky finances.

Posted By on April 10th, 2025

https://www.city-journal.org/article/metropolitan-opera-ticket-sales-operating-costs-performances

“Hopefully we see the Met thriving artistically, and that we will have created a new artistic foundation that will help it continue to grow,” Metropolitan Opera general manager Peter Gelb told the New York Times in 2023, referring to his “big bet”: programming “new works” by living composers. That includes brand-new pieces premiering at the Met, very recent ones that premiered elsewhere, and contemporary works that have been around but are coming to New York only on Gelb’s initiative.

Just how well has this programming done? Sales for the recently completed 2023–2024 season are up slightly: 72 percent capacity versus 66 percent for 2022–2023. However, adjusted for steeply discounted tickets—as little as $25, including taxes and fees—the 2023–2024 season’s box office revenues reach only about 64 percent of their full-price potential. It’s hard to say that the “big bet” is paying off.

Part of Gelb’s approach is to stage one “new work” as each season’s opening-night gala performance. The Met kicked off this trend in 2022 with Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones, a tedious adaptation of journalist Charles Blow’s oversharing childhood memoir. The Met, having just returned to live performance after the Covid-19 pandemic, touted Blanchard’s opera as its first by a black composer. Racial tokenism notwithstanding, Gelb congratulated himself in a Times op-ed last November for having “seized the moment for some wholesale change.”

Gelb has claimed that “new works” outperform traditional favorites. But this appears to have happened only once last season, with Anthony Davis’s X: The Life and Times of Malcom X, which sold 78 percent of seats. House premieres of Daniel Catán’s Florencia en el Amazonas, the Met’s first staged production of a Spanish opera in the original language, reached only 68 percent of seats sold. The respected composer John Adams’s new opera El Niño, a Latin-themed meditation on the birth of Christ, returned just 58 percent. The 2023–2024 season’s much-hyped opening-night new work, Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking—a preachy indictment of the death penalty—sold only 62 percent.