Signal interruption.(public television broadcasting of opera performances)

In Charles Ludlam's hilarious comedy Galas, a fictionalized account of the last days of Maria Callas, the opera diva, isolated in her apartment, is in total despair. Her love life is a disaster. Her career's finished. Her once loyal friends shun her. "And," she growls, capping her list of woes, "there's nothing on television!"

Imagine what she'd think of TV today. Commercial television has surpassed the "vast wasteland" of critics' worst fears. Even on PBS, there's been a similar decline. The only Met opera scheduled for the entire year of 2005 is this month's broadcast of Die Meistersinger, which the company taped in 2001. Salome (2004), Wozzeck (2001) and Ariadne auf Naxos (2003) are other historic Met productions that remain on the shelf, waiting for funding and a time slot. In the past, the Met telecast four or five operas a year. New York City Opera often aired two operas. There were frequent operatic offerings on Live from Lincoln Center and Great Performances-telecasts from Chicago and Houston and San Francisco. What happened?

"We have a loyal viewership," says Vicki Warivonchik, a producer in the Met's broadcast division. "And people have noticed the lack of airtime over the years. They ask, 'Where have you been? When are you coming back?'" Warivonchik has been with the Met for more than a dozen years and remembers when telecasts were a regular feature. "My first year, we did Falstaff, Fanciulla and Parsifal. Technologically speaking, we've changed by leaps and bounds. We used huge one-inch analog tape with Dolby sound. Today we use high-definition digital with Surround Sound."

But while the process is easier, expenses have skyrocketed. It costs more than a million dollars to mount a telecast, partly due to union contracts and high singer fees. With a growing deficit, a crisis in its radio broadcasts and a looming transition between current Met general manager Joseph Volpe and Peter Gelb, the Met has a lot else on its mind. "Since 9/11, tourism is down, the economy is down. Priorities have changed," admits Warivonchik. "TV is a fringe of the opera. It's not our primary focus." But why not show the ones they've already taped? "There are so many factors as to why we are not on PBS as much," she says. "PBS is moving away from opera. The trend is to other forms of music--to crossover and pop."

John Goberman, executive producer of Live from Lincoln Center, sees the issue more in terms of a changing culture. "There has been no pressure from PBS to do less opera," he says. "This is not a PBS issue, it is an opera-world issue--a real-world issue. You don't put something on television that you can't sell tickets to. It's simple but straightforward. If you put on impenetrable works, there are plenty of things more fun for an audience to watch. It's hard for opera fanatics to believe that people aren't bowled over by the first ...