Wanted: A Mandate

The office door, kept primly shut by the previous occupant, now stands wide open. At the windows the beige silk draperies are swept back to let in the sunlight for the first time in years. Visitors are no longer announced in hushed tones, but rather greeted with a jaunty wave from the man behind the desk, who then pulls up an armchair for an informal chat.

Such are the telltale signs that Schuyler Chapin has brought an energetic and affable new presence to the job of general manager of the Metropolitan Opera. A onetime composition student, Chapin has experience as a supervisor of classical recordings for the Columbia label and as a chief of programming for Manhattan's Lincoln Center. Two years ago he was executive producer of Leonard Bernstein's television and film enterprises. Then Sir Rudolf Bing's successor as the Met's general manager, Goran Gentele, named Chapin as his assistant, although Chapin had never before held a job in an opera company. Last July Gentele was killed in a car crash in Sardinia, and Chapin got up from dinner to find himself acting head of the 90-year-old institution and one of the most powerful figures in the music world.

Of necessity, much of what Chapin has done since then has consisted of filling in outlines sketched by Gentele. But Chapin's personal signature has begun to appear. After Gentele's death, the Met board and staff assumed that plans for a Mini-Met (see previous story) would have to be put off for a year. It was Chapin who pushed for an opening this season, insisting "It is time for the Metropolitan once again to become a leader and not a follower." The informal "lookin" rehearsal performances for students that Chapin inaugurated were Gentele's idea, but it was Chapin who thought of having Danny Kaye act as master of ceremonies.

Chapin has the easy manner and confidence of the well born and properly schooled (Millbrook School, New York Social Register}. Thus he has had no trouble nurturing the open, first-name style introduced by Gentele throughout the company--from the $4,000-a-performance stars down to the stagehands. "For the first time in years, people at the Met enjoy their work," says Tenor George Shirley. "Now you feel that your problems will be listened to and that changes will be made."

Chapin works seven days a week, usually beginning at 9 a.m. and going until midnight, with time off only for a half-hour nap around 5 p.m. and for dinner at the Met with his wife Betty. His first season has included 27 different operas and two new productions. To date, the winter flu and other illnesses have necessitated a record 75 cast changes. "One famous night we had to change three Mimis and two Rodolfos," he recalls with a grimace.

Handicapped. Actually the virus may have been partly responsible for one of Chapin's most popular innovations--the use of understudies to replace ailing stars. In the past a young hopeful's dream of stepping in at the Met often remained a fantasy, since half a dozen transatlantic phone calls would be made to get another singer with a big reputation. This season, however, when the celebrated tenor Franco Corelli canceled, Singer William Lewis was given a chance to sing Romeo --and filled the gap admirably.

Chapin believes that artistic matters should be left to artists. He regards himself strictly as an administrator "with veto power." Pending the arrival next season of Artistic Director Rafael Kubelik, this policy has created a certain decision vacuum, one result of which has been a spate of scheduling snafus. Looking over the spring rehearsal calendar, the manager of one conductor discovered his client and the singers were scheduled for rehearsals on different dates. "The Met used to be run like an efficient concentration camp," he growled. "Now it's run like an inefficient day camp." The second half of his comment, at least, remains a minority view.

Gentele begged not to be judged by his first year: all of 1972-73 and most of 1973-74 had been locked into place by Ring. Chapin is doubly handicapped by having to work out the plans of two predecessors. He makes no secret of the fact that he would like to be given a solid mandate to lay plans of his own. He is respected in the music world; almost all of his staff is rooting for him. But Lowell Wadmond, chairman of the Met's board, will say only that Chapin has done "a good job" and that a decision on the permanent general manager may be made by the end of this season in April. Asked who is in the running, Wadmond says: "Mr. Chapin and others."

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