The 3,800-seat Metropolitan Opera House in New York City
“New York’s Metropolitan Opera … has laid off all of its union employees for the duration of the coronavirus crisis,” writes Anastasia Tsioulcas on Thursday (3/19) at National Public Radio. “The layoff includes all of the opera’s orchestral players, chorus singers and stagehands. The Met’s general manager, Peter Gelb, invoked a ‘force majeure’ clause in the unions’ contracts after New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, banned gatherings of more than 500 people.… The Met indicated previously that it would also not pay any contracted solo singers for performances canceled…. A force majeure clause allows changes to a contract because of unforeseeable or uncontrollable circumstance. On Thursday afternoon, the Met announced it was also canceling all performances through the end of its 2019-20 season.… The Met’s management will continue to pay health care premiums for its employees. It will also continue to pay for costly instrument insurance for many of its musicians. The employees will be paid their salaries through March 31…. The employees are eligible to file for unemployment…. The musicians of the Met orchestra, along with conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, have begun sharing their own videos of at-home music making on their own website and social media channels.”
