Peter Gelb, interview - Telegraph HD cinema has had a mixed impact on Met ticket sales. It seems to make no difference in New York - people who live there will come to both relays and performances. We've lost about 25,000 subscribers from the suburbs and corridors, but that has been compensated by increases in ticket-buyers from abroad. We've tried giving people who come to us in the outlying movie houses special ticket offers for the Met, but oddly it doesn't seem to work. In the UK, the Met's third biggest European market after Germany and France, 12.000 people watch the broadcasts every Saturday during the season - that's about twice as much as all our major opera centres could hold at one sitting. But geographic expansion is limited, inasmuch as time changes dictate that broadcasts can only be transmitted live to certain time zones. The financial model is that cinemas buy a specified satellite dish and projecting equipment, returning 50 per cent of box-office takings to the Met. It's not a cheap operation, but in many centres both sides do well out of the arrangement and audiences continue to grow. Another of Gelb's innovations is the website Met on Demand, which for an annual subscription of $150 offers the resources of a vast archive of radio, television and HD transmissions. "I'm particularly proud of this," says Gelb, "not least because it's a great educational tool for schools without much music teaching." This is the apex of Gelb's achievement at the Met: otherwise the pundits are more sceptical. Top of the list of complaints is his commissioning of Robert Lepage's much disdained and madly expensive version of the Ring cycle, which has suffered from technical gremlins and failed to win audiences" hearts. Many other productions (Tosca, for example) have also been lambasted, but in New York Gelb is fighting against extremely conservative tastes, and he deserves credit for attempting innovation. Success: Joyce DiDonato in Maria Stuarda at the Met (Picture: Brigitte Lacombe) Last season saw him score what he considers his highest success count yet: Maria Stuarda (pictured above), Rigoletto, Parsifal and The Tempest all won public and critical acclaim. And he's delighted that "unfamiliar works like The Nose, Dialogues des Carmélites and The Tempest have sold so well, bringing in different audiences." With nearly 4,000 seats on offer for every live performance, Gelb needs stars, and "there really aren't any like there used to be. Not even Kaufmann or Netrebko can sell the house out on the strength of their name alone. And that's a problem. Other headaches include the building's dilapidation (opened in 1966, it now requires extensive and expensive renovation, as well as new plant) and running battles over union contracts. But the biggest item on his agenda is the question of the Met's music director. Until serious ill health intervened, James Levine had been at the helm since 1975. He plans a return to the podium this season, but he is now a weakened 70 and clearly incapable of a heavy workload. Who will succeed him? Fabio Luisi was hotly tipped, but the odds on him now look longer and the bookies are interested in Andris Nelsons, Vladimir Jurowski and Gianandrea Noseda. Gelb only smiles gnomically when I ask for a hint: watch this space. Eugene Onegin opens the new season of The Met Live in HD broadcasts on October 5