>> diana damrau: yes. i'm still a bit. and reduce a little bit. >> simon: just a little bit, i mean you were belting it out. >> damrau: oh, no, only at the end. ♪ ♪ >> simon: "rigoletto" is far from the only thing going on here today. there can be as many as ten operas in production at once. right now the met stage is being set up for a new version of richard wagner's "parsifal," a sacred opera that's never been done like this before. dozens of raven-haired maidens sloshing around in a river of blood. 1,600 gallons of the stuff, heated so the singers don't get cold. overseeing all this is that worried-looking man, peter gelb, the met's general manager. he says opera is a blood sport. >> gelb: i go in every day to the met knowing that this is... there is a battle to be... to be waged and fought for the survival of this art form. and so i'm here to do that. >> simon: this is your seventh year at the met? >> gelb: yes. still here. ( laughs ) >> simon: seven years micromanaging one of the biggest theatres in the world, and one