New York Metropolitan Opera cancels fall season – Culture

New York. The New York Metropolitan Opera (Met) announced on Monday that its 2020-2021 season will not begin until December 31, three months later than planned, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“Given the enormous organizational complexity of the Met schedule, we have no choice but to cancel our fall season,” CEO Peter Gelb said in a statement.

“You can’t go back to an opera in September while social distancing is still in place,” he added.

The production of “Aída” by Giuseppe Verdi, which was scheduled for September 21, has been canceled, as has that of “The Angel of Fire” by Sergueï Prokofiev, whose performances were to begin on November 12.

The new schedule will begin on December 31 with a gala whose details have not yet been announced.

“The Enchanted Flute” and “Don Juan”, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, will be on the 2021 program, as planned, but with staging already seen in New York.

Due to lack of time “for the necessary technical preparations”, the organizers had to give up presenting the planned new stagings, including a “Don Juan” directed by Belgian Ivo van Hove.

To make up for a portion of the canceled dates, the Metropolitan Opera introduced additional performances in February.

The Met also announced that it will advance the time of the start of the functions “whenever possible” and that “it is studying shortening the duration of some performances.”

The city of New York will begin the first phase of exit from the confinement decreed by the authorities in the week of June 8.

But this first phase does not affect the performing arts, which will have to wait for the fourth and final phase of the deconfinement plan, the date of which is still unknown.

No New York theater or theater has announced its reopening date as of yet.

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