The New York Metropolitan Opera announced on Monday that its 2020-21 season would not start until December 31, three months later than expected, due to the coronavirus pandemic, and is studying the possibility of shortening some performances.
“Given the enormous organizational complexity of the Met calendar, we have no choice but to cancel our fall season.”, general manager Peter Gelb said in a statement. “It is not possible to return to an opera house in September while social distancing remains in effect”, he added.
The production ofAïda, by Giuseppe Verdi, which was due to open the season on September 21, was simply canceled, as was that of the angel of fire, by Sergei Prokofiev, whose performances were due to begin on November 12. The new calendar will kick off on December 31 with an exceptional gala, details of which have yet to be announced.
And The Magic Flute and Don Giovanni will be played well, as planned, in 2021, it will be in a staging already seen in New York. The “lack of time available for the necessary technical preparations” thus forced the organizers to give up presenting the new staging initially planned, in particular a Don Giovanni du Belge Ivo van Hove.
To make up for some of the canceled dates, the Met inserted additional performances in February into their new schedule. “In anticipation of new public expectations”, the New York opera house has brought the curtain up “whenever possible” and “studies the reduction of the duration of certain performances”.
The Julius Caesar de Handel will last, for example, 3:30 with one intermission versus 4:30 and two intermissions so far. The three performances of the fall that had to be filmed for the format The Met: Live in HD, shown in theaters around the world, will be replaced by reruns.
New York City is to begin the first phase out of containment during the week of June 8. But this first phase does not concern the performing arts, which will only be able to resume their activity during the fourth and last phase of the plan, at a date still unknown.
No theater or performance hall in New York had yet announced a specific reopening date for performances or concerts with the public.
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