There's an interesting little titbit from New York in the Met's announcement of its 2014/15 season of operas – whose highlights includes the return of conductor James Levine, who'll conduct the season-opening new production by Richard Eyre (replacing Michael Grandage) of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, and give other shows, from Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress to Wagner's Meistersinger. They've also announced that Levine will lead a new staging of Berg's Lulu from 2015/16; it's all testament to Levine's willpower in recovering from operations on his spine that mean he conducts from a motorised wheelchair. And it also shows how much the Met needs him. As his potential replacements come and go throughout the Met's season, Levine seems to become more precious and more irreplaceable for the Met's success. Other new shows in 14/15 include Susan Stroman's house debut with Léhar's The Merry Widow, and a double-bill of verismo favourites Cavalleria Rusticana and I Pagliacci from David McVicar, and there's also John Adams's The Death of Klinghoffer, in Tom Morris's production, first seen at English National Opera, in what could be controversial performances in New York.

But the interesting wee snippet, amidst the trumpeting of 10 more HD broadcasts in cinemas all over the world next season, is what happened to ticket sales in the Met itself last season. They filled just 79% of the seats in that huge, red-velvet covered house, and made only 69% of their projected box-office revenue. For all the millions who watched the cinema broadcasts, those are astonishingly low figures for the world's most expensive opera house. The Met's general manager, Peter Gelb, admits an experimentation with a more flexible pricing structure, borrowed from Broadway, didn't work: "We're learning. I believe in learning from one's mistakes," he's quoted as saying – but even with an apparent pick-up in ticket sales for the early part of the 13/14 season (thanks to an average price reduction of about 10%) it's astonishing that the world's most glamorous opera house can be basically be little more than three-quarters full on an average night. (That compares, incidentally, to more than 90% capacity at the Royal Opera House). For all the HD broadcasts and global reach of the Met brand, if you're not filling your house every night, you're not creating the kind of atmosphere that audiences want to experience and performers need to play to. The Met must be hoping the combination of the return of Levine and a small hike in ticket prices they plan for 14/15 season will stop them losing box office money, since they've reported a small (less than 1%) deficit last season as well.