New York’s Metropolitan Opera, responding to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, has canceled the rest of its 2020-21 season, and will seek concessions from the unions representing its musicians and other staff, The New York Times’ Michael Cooper reports.
While canceling the current season, Cooper writes, Met General Manager Peter Gelb “announced an ambitious lineup for 2021-22 to reassure donors and ticket buyers that the Met has robust plans,” beginning with a September 2021 production of Terence Blanchard’s “Fire Shut Up in My Bones,” the first opera by an African-American composer to be staged by the company – “part of a new focus on contemporary works alongside the ornate productions of canonical pieces for which the company is famous. The Met will also experiment with earlier curtain times, shortening some operas and offering more family fare as it tries to lure back audiences,” Cooper reports:
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