Peter Gelb’s career has followed a singular arc that began with his teenage years as an usher at the Metropolitan Opera and led to his appointment, in August 2006, as the storied company’s 16th general manager. Mr. Gelb has been at the forefront of the artistic world throughout the tumult of the past four years, bringing the country’s largest performing arts organization back from the brink after the pandemic closure, leading the way in commissioning and presenting new and diverse works in order to revitalize opera as a living art form, and rallying artistic forces in defense of Ukraine. Now in his 18th year at the helm of the Met, he has made a priority of presenting cutting-edge new productions of both classic operas and modern masterpieces, overseeing more than 85 new stagings by some of the world’s greatest opera and theater directors. Mr. Gelb also created The Met: Live in HD, a Peabody and Emmy Award–winning series of live performance transmissions shown in high definition in movie theaters, which is currently seen in more than 70 countries across six continents.