Then, not forgetting his role as the team's part owner and president, he joked, "We just met the budget".
"There were some places where we wanted to have very rich materials," he said, "and this material met the budget".
Public safety: Police officers and firefighters always will be needed, but even these positions have met the budget ax.
It is an observation that strikes a chord with Tottenham's MP, David Lammy, who believes the draconian cuts to the Met's budget led to the collapse of neighbourhood policing, loosening the bonds between officers and the community at the very time they most needed strengthening.
He claims that he's already shown he can improve the deal the capital gets, directing our attention to George Osborne's refraining from further slashing the Met budget and to the London "2 for 1" Housing Bill amendment.
The Met's $300 million budget exceeds the combined budgets of the next eight largest American companies, and the Met gives more performances, around 220, than any other company in the world, except for the Vienna State Opera, according to Opera America, an industry group.
With the financial crisis, the Met's budget has been severely reduced, but director Peter Gelb had no hesitation in coughing up for this unexpected expense.
Even three calamities is no great embarrassment when set against the progress Gelb has made in an atmosphere where opera has been in decline as popular entertainment and, worse, at a time when the body-punches the economy has taken requires heavy across-the-board Met budget cuts.
Since 2002, Mr. Volpe has cut the Met's budget to $193 million from $200 million by reducing expenses.
While the Met's budget has grown to $325m under Gelb, revenue has stagnated and ticket sales are off their peaks.
Everything about the Met — its budget, its huge home, its massive staff, its schedule of seven performances a week during its eight-month season and its visibility (everybody has an opinion, whether considered or not) — conspire to suffocate opera.
