Met Opera skips this season, 1st Black composer opens ’21-22
The Metropolitan Opera will skip an entire season for the first time in its nearly 140-year history and intends to return from the pandemic layoff next September with the company’s first presentation of a Black composer, Terence Blanchard’s “Fire Shut Up in My Bones.”
This season was to have started this week, but the company announced June 1 it had pushed back opening night until Dec. 31. In all, 218 performances of 23 operas were lost, raising total cancellations to 276 since the 2019-20 season was cut short by the novel coronavirus on March 12. The orchestra’s international tour next June also was wiped out.
Met General Manager Peter Gelb said additional losses projected at $54 million raise the total for the company to $154 million since the pandemic started. “I think that all of the performing arts in New York are in the same boat,” he said.