Met slashes opening night tickets to $25

Met slashes opening night tickets to $25

News

norman lebrecht

September 24, 2021

The Metropolitan Opera is offering $25 rush tickets to the opening night performance of Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones.

They become available today from 12 noon.

Details here.

Comments

  • mary says:

    I wonder how much I can resell my tickets for in front of the opera house on opening night.

    Twice as much? Half as much?

    • Tiredofitall says:

      Let’s give the Met some room to re-establish itself before we become (more) snotty. Too much is at stake.

      Re-opening for all performing arts venues is unknown territory at this point and they deserve our support.

      We’ll have plenty of time in the future to rail against the Met.

      • mike says:

        Interesting. Only in blue cities. I’ve been going to concerts and living life completely normal outside of blue cities. Joe Rogan and Chapelle have been selling out indoor stadiums for 6 months now. Who wants to sit inside a mental asylum known as a classical concert in a blue city? I’ve given up on going to concerts, you are hypochondriacs. Yes, I was a democrat but not anymore. Something is very wrong with all of you.

        • former d says:

          Me too, turned in my D card and never taking it back. Folks (folx?) in the classical arts have lost their minds.

          Packed indoor stadiums for artists of all other musical genres, packed indoor stadiums for sports, WWE, Monster Rallies, packed bars everywhere, clubs full of jazz and lounge performers everywhere, bands in bars, packed nightclubs, casinos, etc. Everywhere. Even in blue cities where people might have to wear a mask to get in the door to give a nod to a mandate, they take it off and drink and dance the night away. No one cares about Covid.

          But classical organizations still requiring masks, tripping over themselves to assure the vax or negative tests, still limiting capacity in some instances, skipping intermissions in others. It’s a competition for their audiences for the best performances in Covid mitigation.

          Someone stop the madness.

        • The Thinker says:

          Yes, so many conservatives at all these concerts and going to sold-out indoor concerts and the deaths continue to pile up and daily cases rise and rise and we wonder why. Yet, you are the fools complaining about wearing masks and not being able to have a normal life. How stupid can you be?

    • BRUCEB says:

      I’m sure they would thank you for buying tickets in the first place, though (if you really did) 🙂

      • Tiredofitall says:

        Most informed people know the situation and accept the decision. If you’re already paying for opening night priced tickets, you’re not shopping for a bargain. Be grateful for small favors.

  • phf655 says:

    The Met has been offering $25 rush tickets on line for almost every performance for years. Usually they go on sale on noon on the day of the performance, earlier for matinees. What is unusual is that these rush tickets have been put on sale several days in advance.

  • Maria says:

    Fire shut up my bones? No Traviata then? No wonder.

    • Tiredofitall says:

      Point taken, and I agree. However, the poorly (extremely poorly) received recent production of La Traviata is perhaps not a good alternative if they want to sell out.

      Given the state of re-opening for the performing arts ion New York City, Fire Shut Up in my Bones is as good a choice as any for ticket sales.

      Without a certifiable star to absolutely guarantee top price ticket sales (and I can count them on one hand), the choice of opera makes no real financial difference.

      In the end, the Met is killing two birds with one stone by opening (at all) and presenting the first work at the opera house by a Black composer, despite the company’s convenient hop on the bandwagon.

  • Cynical Bystander says:

    Good for them. Given that they have trouble filling all the ‘good’ seats offering seats at a reduced price should, but might not, attract a wider, more diverse, and without being patronising, poorer audience. The Arts are becoming everymore the preserve of the comfortably off. Anything that encourages a wider audience is to be applauded.

  • DG says:

    It may be that people are so beaten down by the pandemic at this point that sitting through a new opera that deals with childhood abuse is just too much right now. I read the book, and the music and singers may be great (I don’t know) but it’s not the kind of story I want to watch at the moment. Bring on escapism.

    • Felixx says:

      Just back from dress rehearsal, I though it might all be somewhat harrowing but it’s actually quite an uplifting opera.

      • Iko says:

        The opera is quit boring unfortunately. Disturbing topic indeed but many operas have disturbing plot- per genre. Fire in my rear is just really boring music. Unmusical at times

    • Lolka says:

      You want escapism? Come to see “Sentenced to this vessel”, a new play- it is magical realism, exactly escapism plot. Original soundtrack (from electronic to neo classical to Varez inspired, jazz and hyper pop) post absurdist plot. It is on October 30th, at st. Jean theater, nyc

    • Lolka says:

      For escapism and pleasant theater of absurd , come to see Sentenced to this vessel on October 30th. Just google the name, it is in Manhattan

    • BRUCEB says:

      Not necessarily. I once recommended Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road” (beautifully written, but a very dark story, with zero happy moments in it) to someone and told her she’d better read it right away, while it was still summer. She said no, she likes to save that kind of thing for winter when everything is dark, cold and miserable.

      I think the term is “catharsis” — getting your inner angst out by seeing it represented in art.

  • BP says:

    Over in Paris, I was offered two tickets for L’Elisir d’Amore later this fall, as were all other subscribers to the Opera. Face value 250€. Times are tough for accountants.

  • Hilly says:

    Peter,
    It’s not too late to yank the remaining six performances of this gay black celebration of the triumph of child abuse and do Traviata instead. Bet you get full price!

  • Couperin says:

    Sold out in 2 minutes.

  • Y says:

    How much of that money goes toward the Grand Inquisitor — mean Chief Diversity Officer’s salary?

    Sorry, but I’m not going to support leftwing extremism and the annihilation of my own culture. Fire your political commissars and stick to music, and I might resume buying tickets in the future.

  • Brian says:

    Anyone who looks at the ticket sales on their website will see that they are barely selling tickets for any of the performances. The Boris Godunov the following night after the opening, for example, has vast swaths of unsold seats. For the second performance of Fire Shut Up in My Bones has complete rows of seats unsold, even in the cheapest sections, which are priced at $37 per ticket.

  • Emil says:

    They have done that for every performance for years. They also sell standing room tickets the day of. Absolutely nothing new here.

  • MacroV says:

    Who knows, this could become the hot ticket like Akhnaten did a couple years ago. Make all the snide comments you want about “woke” programming, but Terence Blanchard is a major American composer and jazz trumpeter. It’s absolutely appropriate for the MET to be featuring his work.

    • Christopher Grigsby says:

      Yeah. I’m not down for wokeness and am no fan of the opinions of Charles Blow.
      But Blanchard? He’s the real deal through-and-through.

  • brent says:

    the only way they can fill the seats for this so-called “opera” is by heavy discounts and/or comped tickets.

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