NEW YORK ā The Metropolitan Opera season is getting shorter, along with some of its shows.
The Met said Monday it is pushing back opening night by nearly 3 1/2 months to the latest start in the companyās 137-year history and calling off four of next seasonās new productions in fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. It also announced about $60 million in emergency gifts had balanced its 2019-20 budget.
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āSocial distancing and grand opera do not mix,ā Met general manager Peter Gelb said. āIt is impossible to follow these social distancing guidelines that are in effect and presumably will be in effect certainly through the summer and into the early fall to have an orchestra situated in the pit, to have a chorus and dancers and singers in close contact with each other on the stage, to have costume, wardrobe, makeup people working intensely.ā
The company plans to start its shortest season in four decades with a gala on New Yearās Eve and is considering cuts that get the audience in and out faster.
āThis is a good wake-up call for all of us to once again revisit running lengths,ā Gelb said. āCertain operas seem to be just right in terms of their running time and others seem to be significantly too long."
Four new stagings will be reset for later seasons, most likely 2022-23 and later: Michael Mayerās production of Verdiās āAida,ā Barrie Koskyās version of Prokofievās āThe Fiery Angel,ā Simon McBurneyās vision of Mozartās āDie Zauberflƶteā and Ivo Van Hoveās rendering of Mozartās āDon Giovanni.ā
āAidaā was to have opened the season Sept. 21 starring Anna Netrebko.
āI believe that we have a much greater chance of starting on Dec. 31,ā Gelb said. āBased upon the discussions Iāve had with various health authorities here locally in New York, some of them believe that there will be a medical solution by then. If there isnāt, we wonāt open. But if we didnāt open on Dec. 31, it would not be mean that we wouldnāt open at all next season.ā
Netrebko also has withdrawn from a new staging of Straussā āSalomeā scheduled for 2021-22, deciding the role was not right for her.
āThere will be changes to all future seasons,ā Gelb said. āIf ever there was a time for grand opera to become more flexible in terms on scheduling and more nimble in terms of reaction, now is the time.ā
Jake Heggieās āDead Man Walkingā is the only survivor among the new productions, opening April 8.
Julie Taymor's staging of āMagic Fluteā from 2004 and the poorly received Michael Grandage production of āDon Giovanniā from 2011 both will be brought back from storage containers in Newark, New Jersey.
The pandemic caused the Met to stop its season on March 12, forcing cancellation of the final 58 of 217 originally scheduled performances. The Met has now cut 146 performances in its 4,000-capacity house, leading to initial projections of huge losses in its $308 million budget.
Opening night had been latest in 1969 after a labor lockout delayed the start from Sept. 15 to Dec. 29.
There are 130 staged performances of 15 operas in the new schedule, down from the 218 performances of 23 operas that had been announced. This will be the fewest Met staged productions since a low of 14 in the lockout-delayed 1980-81 season, when there were 112 staged performances. This will be just the Metās second season with one new production after 1945-46 with Pucciniās āIl Tabarro.ā There were no new productions in 1943-44, 1944-45 and 1948-49.
Many curtains will be moved up to 7 p.m., and Handelās āGiulio Cesareā will be cut from 4 1/2 hours to 3 1/2 hours with one fewer intermission. Straussā āDie Frau Ohne Schattenā also may be shortened.
The Met had announced its first February break and an extension of the season into June, but the pandemic caused the company to fill the month with Pucciniās āLa BohĆØme,ā Bizetās āCarmenā and Verdiās āLa Traviata.ā
A revival of Bergās āLuluā scheduled for March 2021 was replaced by additional performances of Rossiniās āIl Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville).ā Revivals dropped include Wagnerās āTristan und Isolde,ā Beethovenās āFidelio,ā Offenbachās āLes Contes dāHoffmann (The Tales of Hoffmann),ā Donizettiās āRoberto Devereuxā and Humperdinckās āHansel and Gretel.ā This will be just the Metās second season without Wagner since anti-German sentiment in 1917-18 and ā18-ā19 caused by World War I; the other was 2013-14.
Whatās left of the season includes 16 performances of āBohĆØmeā along with 13 each of āFluteā and āTraviata,ā and 10 apiece of āDon Giovanniā and āCarmen.ā Yannick NĆ©zet-SĆ©guinās first full season as music director has been curtailed to 26 performance of four operas.