AGE: 54
OCCUPATION: General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera
NUMBER OF TIME COVERS: 0
PREVIOUS APPEARANCES ON THE TIME 100: 1
PRO: Gelb continues the Met's modern march with the company's first John Adams opera and productions by experimental directors Robert Lepage and Mary Zimmerman. Jeff Koons will decorate a new fire curtain, and live transmissions in HD will go out to even more movie theaters this year.
CON: Illness felled a number of company members in early spring, and traditionalists remain suspicious of Gelb's use of words like "fun."