To guarantee constant operation and at full capacity, the Metropolitan Opera of New York announces the vaccination obligation for the public and the teams as of the opening of the season next September. A decision motivated by the global health context but also by the financial situation of the institution:
The 3,000 employees of the Metropolitan Opera, all the artists as well as the 3,850 spectators that can accommodate the hall at each performance must be vaccinated. From this September 27, 2021, date of the opening of the season, any person wishing to go to the Met will have to prove a complete vaccination (two weeks after a second dose, or a single dose vaccine), approved by the FDA (Agence American Medicines) or WHO (World Health Organization). Vaccination will be compulsory from the pre-season Gala on September 13, but it had already been so for several months for participants in the salary negotiations of the house (another economic issue and threat of this recovery to which we are dedicating a second article ).
The decision was taken by Director General Peter Gelb to combine health and economic issues: ensuring the safety of all people, as well as ensuring the financial health of the institution which has remained closed since March 11, 2020, and whose deficit exceeded $ 150 million at the end of 2020.
If the full gauge can give hope for a recovery in the accounts, it remains to be seen whether the performances will indeed be sold out. If this condition could discourage some spectators, the Director nevertheless highlighted the fact that such security (consisting in verifying universal vaccination in the theater) could reassure others and would even offer the pleasure of being able to dispense with the mask. inside the theater. This promise is now conditional, the CDC (Center for the control and prevention of diseases) now considering making the wearing of the mask mandatory indoors even for vaccinated people, in the face of the contagiousness of the Delta variant and its resurgence of cases.
The Metropolitan Opera has however implemented a new measure aimed at reducing reluctance and uncertainties in the face of these restrictions, by drastically relaxing its reservation policy for the coming season. Tickets will be exchangeable free of charge for a future performance without the need to justify their choice, until the time of the closing of the show.
Unfortunately, young people under the age of 12 will therefore simply not be admitted to the Metropolitan Opera, without any exemptions and until further notice (until they are allowed a vaccine or health measures are relaxed). . The lyric house therefore chooses, like Carnegie Hall, the strictest policy (while Broadway, which resumes this month, allows negative tests for young people). The Met, however, hopes in particular that this problem will be resolved by December, when a short version of The Magic Flute by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, conducted by Jane Glover, notably with Rolando Villazon alternating with Will Liverman in the role of Papageno, and Cinderella by Jules Massenet by Laurent Pelly, led by Alsatian conductor Emmanuel Villaume, with Laurent Naouri, but also Isabel Leonard and Julie Boulianne in the title role alternately.
The announcement of the Metropolitan Opera comes in a general health context marked by new measures. The mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, notably announced the vaccination obligation or the presentation of a negative test for Covid every week for the 300,000 officials of the city from September 13, like the governor of California , but also to make vaccination compulsory to practice indoor activities or to go to a restaurant. Currently, around 60% of the population of New York State is already fully vaccinated according to official figures.
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