The Metropolitan Opera in New York will keep its curtains closed until the opening gala on Christmas Eve, the theater said in announcing a shorter season due to the coronavirus epidemic.
“Social distance and great opera just don’t go together,” CEO Peter Gelb said in a video message released late Monday.
The 2020-2021 season was slated to begin in September at the company’s 3,800-seat, 137-year-old theater at Lincoln Center. Four new productions will be postponed, according to the Met’s website.
The Met, one of the world’s leading opera houses, is one of the latest cultural institutions to extend its closure due to the pandemic, which has hit live theater especially hard.
The company, known for spectacular performances of operas such as Georges Bizet’s “Carmen” and Giacomo Puccini’s “La Boheme,” licensed its orchestra, choir and stage staff in March.
Broadway theaters have extended their closure from mid-March to at least September 6, while two major London musicals, such as “Hello Dolly” and “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” were postponed last week until 2021. .
“As long as social distancing is required, we cannot perform here,” Gelb said.
The director hopes that by December “there will be a medical solution” to the coronavirus crisis that will allow the Met to resume its shows on December 31.
London’s Royal Opera House and Milan’s La Scala, which also suspended their performances several months ago, have yet to announce their plans for the 2020-2021 season.
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