The prestigious Metropolitan Opera in New York, closed since March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, announced on Tuesday that it would ask the public and all its technical and musical teams to be vaccinated for the start of the next season, scheduled in September.
“The Met will be a fully vaccinated home. The public will have to show proof of complete vaccination, approved by the FDA (United States Medicines Agency) or WHO (World Health Organization) in order to enter the building, ”writes the Met Opera in an email sent to its members. .
“All artists and members of the orchestra, choirs and teams will have to do the same,” adds opera, the largest employer in the United States in the field of live performance, with more than 3,000 employees.
The opera adds that such a measure will allow, in accordance with the current guidelines of the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) to achieve “full capacity” for the public and that “protective masks will be optional”. But, against the backdrop of a resurgence of COVID-19 cases due to the Delta variant, the CDC, the main federal public health agency, should again recommend Tuesday the wearing of the mask indoors in certain circumstances, even for vaccinated people, have announced several US media.
The announcement to its Met Opera members comes amid the debate over mandatory vaccination in the United States. On Monday, New York City Hall and the State of California announced that their officials should be vaccinated, or test negative for COVID every week, starting September 13 for New York (300,000 officials) and August 21. in California (240,000 civil servants).
So far, Broadway has not made a collective announcement, but among the first shows to resume, “Springsteen on Broadway” (since June 26) and “Pass Over” (August 4) require the public to be vaccinated. .
The 2021-22 season is set to kick off on September 27 at the Met, which will premiere for the first time an opera composed by a black musician, “Fire Shut Up in My Bones” by Terence Blanchard.
During the pandemic, the opera house was rocked by social tensions, with management wanting to lower wages to support declining revenues.
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