Met Life

Soundcheck | May 3, 2010
Joseph Volpe, the no-nonsense, Flatbush-born general manager of the Metropolitan Opera announced recently that he plans to retire in 2006. In his first broadcast interview since that announcement he sits down with host John Schaefer to discuss his rise from apprentice carpenter to become arguably the most powerful man in the performing arts world. During Volpe's four-decade tenure, the Met thrived both artistically and fiscally, all while he settled complex labor disputes and put big divas in their place. Also on the show is Eugene Drucker, violinist and founding member of the Emerson String Quartet. In the 1980’s, the quartet almost single-handedly attracted a new audience to the string quartet genre with its intrepid programming. This season it invites them along on further adventures in programs juxtaposing late Beethoven quartets with Haydn's "Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross" and Bach's "Art of Fugue."
Additional Resources:
» Emerson Quartet Web site
» Joseph Volpe Plans to Retire

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