Metropolitan Opera shuts down ‘futures’ blog
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The Metropolitan Opera has moved to shut down a popular blog that speculated on future productions at the venerated New York opera company, according to a Tuesday report in the New York Observer.
Met Futures, a blog run since 1996 by Brad Wilber, published lists of possible future productions and casts at the Metropolitan Opera. The Observer report states that in May, Sharon Grubin, the company’s general counsel, asked Wilber to take down Met Futures. Last week, Wilber acquiesced and shut down his blog.
On his personal website, Wilber provided an explanation: ‘For some time, I have been engaged in discussions with the Metropolitan Opera about the aggregated Met Futures content on my web site. We have agreed that as of August 8, 2011 I will permanently dissolve my Futures list.’
The Observer report says that representatives from the Met’s communications department offered Wilber some CDs, which he accepted. They also spoke with him about ‘the tone and content of his farewell post.’
The opera company provided a statement about the incident: ‘The Met asked Mr. Wilber to please stop providing unconfirmed information about future seasons, and he agreed.’ It remains unclear if the company had threatened him with legal action.
Met Futures was widely read among opera and classical music fans. Its speculative lists -- which extended several seasons into the future -- often proved to be accurate.
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-- David Ng
