Broadway reopens on September 14. But not the Met

When the lights go on again in New York, it looks like the Metropolitan Opera will still be dark.

Its general manager Peter Gelb has locked out the stagehands and is in varying degrees of confrontation with the musicians, whose wages he withheld for a year. New York wants its opera back but a soporific board and a bumptious manager may not be able to deliver.

We hear that things are on a knife-edge right now and goodwill is nowhere to be seen.

Beyond bad labour relations, the Met’s prolonged paralysis is costing it public support. The NY Philharmonic has maintained contact with the city by taking its music out on bandwaggons and utilising the potential of the Shed. The Philharmonic still feels relevant to New York while the Met has faded to black.

Reviving it won’t be easy, and that task may well be beyond the capabilities of the present management.

The clock is ticking.