Met Opera Launches Nightly Online Shows Amid Coronavirus Closure

UPPER WEST SIDE, MANHATTAN — The Metropolitan Opera will light up its fan's computer screens instead of its stage until the coronavirus-led closure of its opera house comes to an end, its managers announced.

The Met Opera is getting through the cancellation of its shows amid the COVID-19 pandemic by offering free streams of past performances online, the first of which went up on its website Monday evening.

"Our stage is dark, but our spirits are filled with operatic love and devotion to you our fans and we want to satisfy you in these difficult times," General Manager Peter Gelb said in the announcement. "Every night we’ll be offering a different show."

The first show, "Carmen," was met with unprecedented demand on the Met Opera's website when it went live at 7:30 p.m. It will be available until 3:30 p.m. Tuesday before the next show goes up that evening.

The opera house recommended accessing the shows through Met Opera on Demand apps for Apple, Amazon, and Roku devices and Samsung Smart TV to help with any problems streaming on the website.

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And it seems the Met's orchestra, which accompanies the opera shows, is also getting in on the quarantine-friendly shows.

Met Orchestra musicians began posting videos of solo performances in their apartments on the ensemble's Twitter page around the same time the full opera streams began.

The opera house, along with the Philharmonic and many of New York City's performing institutions, canceled shows until the end of the month after Gov. Andrew Cuomo banned all gatherings of 500 people or more in the state. The ban also shut down Broadway shows.

So far, the coronavirus has led New York City to shut down a huge swath of its businesses, including all restaurants and bars, and city schools.

"Hopefully this will satisfy your opera love at least in part during these difficult weeks ahead when the Met stage and all the stages in New York are dark," Gelb said. "We look forward to welcoming you back in the opera house when things are better."

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