Okay, he’s not leaving for another two years. But with his successor already named, Metropolitan Opera chief Joseph Volpe is now officially a lame duck, a position to which he is anything but accustomed. Regarding fears that Peter Gelb is planning to dumb down the company with the crossover material that made him famous at Sony Classical, Volpe takes a skeptical tone: “Peter is very smart. And I believe Peter will do what’s in good taste and proper for the Met. I don’t think he would attempt to popularize a standard work, because, first of all, it won’t work. In the record business you can do certain things that you cannot do in an opera house.”