Continued Social Distancing Protocols Likely to Delay Metropolitan Opera Fall Opening, Says Peter Gelb - OperaWire

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(Credit: Jonathan Tichler / Met Opera)

Whether the Metropolitan Opera starts its 2020-21 season on time remains a mystery. However, what isn’t a mystery is that the company will not move forward with a season with social distancing limitations in place.

Per a New York Times article, Met Opera general manager Peter Gelb has noted that the opera house would only be able to seat 400 people if it introduced social distancing protocols; he noted that that would simply not make sense financially for the company, which can seat close to 4,000 people in its auditorium.

“I can’t imagine any scenario in which performances can take place at the Met when social distancing is still a factor,” Gelb stated in the article.

This is not the first time Gelb has made such statements.

“Social distancing and rehearsing and performing at the Met are contradictory,” Metropolitan Opera general manager Peter Gelb said in a previous report by ABC News. “There’s no way that I can imagine with a company the size of the Met, with hundreds of artists involved in each performance and the size of the auditorium, which is five times larger than the average Broadway theater — it is hard to imagine under those circumstances that we will be performing until such time as it is safe to do so.”

New York City has yet to initiate phase one of the reopening program. Theaters and other arts institutions are part of phase four of reopening, which would likely take place around two months after the start of phase one; phase one is expected to start in early to mid-June in New York City if the state deems that the city is ready for such a process. The Met Opera has already canceled technical rehearsals for its new productions over the summer.

Several companies in Europe have already begun the reopening process, all of them with social distancing protocols in place. Michael Volle and Gabriela Scherer recently gave a recital at Wiesbaden for its May Festival under these circumstances. Several other theaters are following Wiesbaden’s lead, including Oper Frankfurt, the Rossini Festival, the Ravenna Festival, the Macerata Opera Festival, the Puccini Festival, and the Festival della Valle d’Itria, among others.