Sunday Performances

One seemingly simple way to draw bigger crowds: perform when it’s convenient for audiences. While other major opera houses, ballet companies and Broadway shows find that Sunday performances are among their most popular, the Met retains a longstanding never-on-Sundays schedule that dates back to the days of strict blue laws.

Many operagoers find weeknight performances difficult, especially for operas that last three hours or longer. An 8 p.m. start can be too late for older patrons and suburbanites who face long commutes after the final curtain. But earlier starts are tough for the many people who typically work much later than 5 p.m. — especially if they want to be able to eat dinner.

Sunday matinees would be simpler for people in both groups and could appeal to operagoers from further afield. Peter Gelb, the Met’s general manager, has suggested adding some Sunday performances, but he will need to win the agreement of the Met’s unions, whose workers often have punishing schedules and who agreed to concessions in their last contracts. And going dark on a weekday would cut into the Met’s already-cramped rehearsal schedules. MICHAEL COOPER

Artists in Residence

Every orchestra, it seems, has an artist in residence: In fact, the New York Philharmonic’s this season has been the bass-baritone Eric Owens. Why not the Met? Planning is tough, of course, but with enough lead time, why couldn’t a singer participate in three (or four, or five) productions over a season, as well as concerts, recitals, lectures? The more audiences know (and love) a performer, the more eager they’ll be to buy tickets to see her. ZACHARY WOOLFE

A Stagione System

There’s much to be said for the stagione system in use in many European opera houses, in which only one production runs at a time. This makes it easier to instill a sense of urgency in the public: Your chance to see a show is now or never. As a magnet for cultural tourists, some of whom travel to New York to see multiple operas over a few days, the Met is understandably reluctant to do this, and the house is set up to run several productions at once. But it would still make sense to link thematically related works into mini-festivals that encourage binge-watching, like a “Lulu”-versus-“Lucia” showdown of madwomen. CORINNA da FONSECA-WOLLHEIM

Further Festivals

One “festival” is already offered by the Met, although it’s a summer of HD screenings on Lincoln Center Plaza. And, admittedly, festivals can be used as tools for both progress and reaction: The New York Philharmonic has its new-music biennial, but also its Dvorak and Rachmaninoff celebrations. Even so, a festival during the main season — done properly — would let the Met draw attention to new productions while trotting out old ones, help it build excitement for unusual repertoire and give it an opportunity for collaboration with other, non-operatic institutions. Imagine a series looking at the Orpheus myth over time, from Monteverdi to Birtwistle. Or treatments of Shakespeare, balancing Verdi with Barber, Reimann and Adès. Think what could be done for the forgotten Romantics, like Korngold and Schreker. One could even contemplate a pageant of American operas. DAVID ALLEN