Just in: Peter Gelb bans kids from the Met
NewsWith customary sensitivity, the Metropolitan Opera has just posted the following:
Children under the age of 12, for whom there is no currently available vaccine, will not be permitted to enter the Met regardless of the vaccination status of their guardians.
Well, no point in stagung Hansel and Gretel, then.
They go on to say:
As soon as children under the age of 12 become eligible to receive a vaccine, fully vaccinated children will be welcomed back to the Met.
It’s not the edict that offends, it’s the wording.
But the Met has the worst customer-facing communications of any opera house outside China. They never learn.
Regardless of Gelb’s previous blunders, I appreciate “blunt” clear unambiguous wording when it comes to health directives and information. Quick and easy to understand.
Yes, this seems straightforward enough. Besides, I can probably count on one hand the number of under-12s I’ve ever seen at the Met. They’d much rather be at home playing MineCraft!
Well, the ones you have seen are worth more than any adult who even knows what “Minecraft” might be. So long as the “children” under 12 are engaging with opera, they need to be encouraged; THEY are the future!
The reason so many kids enjoy Minecraft so much is that it’s brilliant: hugely rewarding, creative, immersive. Much like opera, in fact! If you know any folk who play it, get them to show you around one of their Minecraft ‘worlds’. It’s fab.
Yeah, who cares about the science…
Those damn covid spreading kids…
https://needtoknow.news/2021/07/johns-hopkins-study-found-zero-covid-deaths-among-healthy-kids/
Setting aside that the study says nothing about kids spreading COVID, are you really trying to make a point via an anti-vax page? How stupid is that?
Which vaccine did you get Indeed?
Sorry, I was trying to be sarcastic about Gelb’s foolishness. He’s done enough that’s for sure.
Indeed: “kids spreading covid…”
Er…having the vaccine won’t stop you getting Covid (it just stops you getting seriously ill), hence taking the vaccine can not stop you spreading covid.
Really, your ignorant anti-science nonsense is as tiresome as that of the anti-vaxxers
There is NO way to overlook “Gelb’s previous blunders”! He has done his best to destroy the MET and this is just one more example of his stupid, counterproductive “management” style. GET RID OF GELB!
Kathleen – “Get rid of Gelb” (nice capital letters on your part) because he’s issued an appropriate health directive? Why don’t you go back to your Trump rally and leave us alone on this site. You miserable anti-vaxxers are exactly why Gelb is having to take these steps. Grow up and be a responsible adult.
Kinder, schaut die Krise an,
wie der Peter herrschen kann.
Wie er hart,
knusperhart,
selber nun zum Opfer ward!
Merkt des Himmels Strafgericht:
böse Werke dauern nicht!
I find the Met’s current production of “Hansel and Gretel” more offensive than anything in the wording of this “edict.”
The whole work is offensive by today’s standards. A dirty old man dressed up as granny, offering sweets to two deprived children, forcing the girl to work and locking the boy up in a cage to ask him to present his extrimties.
Not to mention “the broom stick”.
Ja, was macht man damit?
Richard the Third: an embittered hunchback wants to mount Lady Anne and take over so he decides to murder children he’s locked in a tower.
Yep, they all speak well – but what do you do with it?
Gus, ever heard of the Grimm Brothers?…
The Grimm brothers weren’t collecting children’s stories, but folk tales, often bloody. Victorians prettified them into kiddie lit.
Only of the Brothers Grimm.
I’m speechless. This is pathetic. The man is totally clueless when it comes to PR. However I’m trying to see the silver lining, which is that an entire generation will be spared the experience of having fallen asleep during a Met performance. I also have faith that the exempted children will find other outlets to discover opera. For starters, opera houses could present “Brundibár” with the eponymous villian sporting bald head and rimless glasses.
May, this isn’t a PR statement – it’s a public health directive. What about it do you find so “pathetic”? Would that you were, indeed, as speechless as you claim so you could spare us all your inanities.
The public health policy for the state of NY states that in order for venues to sell/fill every seat, that non-vaccinated persons must present a negative test. Notice that other Lincoln Center institutions are NOT implementing the same policy as the Met. It is a PR statement in the sense that it goes against common sense in the arts world: years of audience development have just been flushed down the drain. Granted few children actually attend Met performances. However it sends a terrible signal to young audiences. Once again, children are getting the short end of the stick.
Hans Krasa’s “Brundibar” is a fine opera. It was premiered at the Theresienstadt concentration camp during the Second World War.
Many years ago I had the honor of meeting a Czech lady who as a child took part in all the 50-plus performances of the opera at the concentration camp. About 10,000 children were interned in the camp. She was one of the 93 who survived. All other children were deported to Auschwitz, where they were gassed.
No children at The Met? That’s more than half their audience!!! Probably more, if they’re New Yorkers.
Aussie – “oi” Aussie – “oi” Aussie Aussie Aussie – “oi, oi, oi!”
So it’s better to teach children ageism and mockery than to learn how to sit still and learn?
So no Carmen, no Bohème, no Boris, no Werther, no Turandot, no Tosca…as they all have children’s choruses…?!?!
Wouldn’t most of those children be 12+ and thus eligible for the vaccine? Besides, 3-5 minutes excised from a popular opera wouldn’t render it unperformable.
I know we are two nations divided by a common language, but this Yankee really doesn’t get what the problem is with the wording.
There is no problem whatsoever. It’s just that this site wouldn’t approve of Peter Gelb if he balanced the Met’s budget, sold out every performance and gave every employee a $10,000 raise. There would still be something wrong.
No there wouldn’t. He’d be doing his job. Which he isn’t.
Gelb should heed the advice of his more educated betters.
Biden says “pay MORE”!!!
Nothing. Lebrecht can’t stop himself from taking a shot at the Met, no matter how petty and cheap.
I agree. It is clear and open. Anything else would be seen as trying to sugarcoat a policy.
Apparently the argument for leaving children to last, if at all, in the vaccination queue is that they are less likely to suffer severe impact. But they are still possibly subject to contracting, and therefore spreading, Covid. The Met’s policy on vaccination — right or wrong, and I think it is right — has been clearly stated. This just makes sure there is no ambiguity when it comes to the kids.
Having the vaccine won’t stop you getting Covid and spreading Covid; it only stops you getting seriously ill. Since children don’t get seriously ill, there really is no reason for them to get vaccinated.
Vaccine passports — that’s what is wrong. The cake’s icing: since there’s neither vaccine nor passport, everyone is banned.
Couldn’t the kids attend if they wore hazmat suits? Shouldn’t we ALL be wearing hazmat suits?
Up to you…………
Here are plenty of hazmat suits to suit everybody’s taste.- https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=ALeKk0390VgqMtFYKVSOpxg8c1PA_F8N0g:1627494223141&source=univ&tbm=isch&q=hazmat+suit&client=opera&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjT76y4qIbyAhU5nGoFHcYQDRgQjJkEegQIBxAC&biw=1240&bih=620
You’re all kvetching that the Met doesn’t sugarcoat such crucial bad news – in an effort to save lives? And who says that Gelb himself wrote it?? You harpies need to grow up!
Grow up?…PG is a micro-manager (more of a scared little boy); of course he reviewed it. It is up for debate whether or not he understood it.
Perhaps it was your Dr Fauci!
Culture has been declining in the US for years now. I hope and pray that Covid-19 does not bury it.
I can do without your anti-US poppycock. Enough.
This is a public health directive, not an apology. As such, there should not be–nor is there–any ambiguity.
The Met’s communications are often wrong-headed and confusing, or even laughable (despite an ever-growing legion of marketing and communication personnel …headed by, yes, the long-time Communications Director from Glyndebourne), but in this instance, they got it right.
The news is not good, but the message is correct.
A public health directive…that has no effect on public health. The policy is bizarre and only speaks to those who have terrified themselves into stupidity, or hate children.
Children are walking petri dishes.
Eww, they deserve no kind words. Stay home.
I think that was the point of all Brothers Grimm fairy tales: cautionary tales for all children with cooties to stay home.
I honestly don’t understand the complaints about this statement.
Clearly, another slow day in the scandal mongering business.
The correct wording should read “…for whom there is currently, no available vaccine…”
Why the comma after “currently”? Try reading it out loud.
it’s PAST time to ban Gelb!
Exactly HOW does one stage La Boheme and many other operas without the children’s chorus?
1. More cheaply.
2. Less rehearsal time.
3. Offstage female chorus.
No Boheme at the Met??? Gosh, it really is time to revive that long-ignored work. Really, you think going a season without Boheme is some kind of disaster? You prove yourself to be more clueless with each post. You should really quit while you’re behind.
I don’t see the problem. It is clear wording with a clear explanation.
Perfectly understandable statement. No doubt the children under 12 who were itching to see Electra and Salome will be disappointed.
In addition to the children under 12 not vaccinated, persons who do not present proof of vaccination will not be permitted to enter the opera house. Good!!!!!
NFL and MLB should do the same because the science supports such policies when the virus has not been controlled. It may be tethered, but not conquered.
The science does not “support such policies”. That is nonsense. Getting vaccinated is a sensible thing to do because you become very unlikely to become seriously ill when you get covid. But it can’t stop you from getting covid. Whether someone else gets vaccinated does not affect your health outcomes, or whether you will get Covid.
How the hell “should” it have been worded?!?!?
We are still living in a Pandemic…while you are clutching your pearls, people are spreading disease, and dying…
JUST THE FACTS, MA’AM….!
BRAVO, PETER GELB
No matter what Gelb says or does, he will be denounced on this blog.
I was thinking of bringing my under-12 kids to the Met this season (for real, they’ve been before and enjoyed it immensely). The Met still appears to have the “holiday presentations” of Magic Flute and Cinderella on the schedule. Think they will keep these on the schedule with no kids allowed? We went to their holiday presentation of the Magic Flute a few years ago and it was full of kids, because it’s way shorter and in English so the serious opera folk stay away. I missed the many ‘cut’ pieces of music (especially that overture, how can anyone cut that masterpiece??) but it was an ideal intro to opera for children because it didn’t give them time to get restless. I don’t understand how they still have these shortened holiday presentations on the schedule if they are not letting kids in.
They’re clearly hoping that children will be eligible for vaccinations by December.
Peter Gelb is almost unbelievably stupid. Is there any way to get rid of him.?
Kerrin – It is because of you selfish, ignorant anti-vaxxers that Gelb is having to take such steps. Go back to your Trump rally and leave us alone.
Hansel & Gretel is not an Opera for kids….
I don’t have a lame viola joke that’s applicable to Peter Gelb. I have to draw the line here. A 12 year old has better drawing skills than him.
For Larry D.
Thank you for your comment. I am originally from England, and when we were taught English sixty five years ago by our Cambridge professor, commas were used much more frequently. And quite rightly, it is not totally necessary. I seem to recall it was all to do with the breath!
But yet Gelb never had a problem allowing children to participate in productions conducted by James Levine…what a hypocrite!
Why can’t the kids provide a negative antigen quick test instead of a vaccination certificate as accepted for flights and opera performances elsewhere in the world, for kids and adults? Absurd.
I am interested in how they are going to operate their Children’s chorus, and children performers department. Many operas have integral chorus parts ment for childrens’ vocal instument specifically. At the age of 12, many children age out vocally at the MET…and those that don’t, how will the parents feel about vaccines for young kids/barely teens…not on the fence about the Vax for adults…just not sure for our youngest…
The vaccine is unlikely to do young kids/barely teens any harm. But it probably won’t do them much good either.
The main benefit of the vaccine is for older people, and those in poor health, and the seriously fat. Those people would be crazy not to take the vaccine, and that is where the public health message needs to be heard.
I think they may be complaining that
Currently there are no government approved vaccines for children under 12.
Even if there was a vaccine for the under 12s, the benefits are so low that it is questionable whether it would be wise to vaccinate them.