NEW YORK – 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.