Stagehands pack faux greenery into garbage bags and push a vintage-style Mercedes-Benz offstage. They have three-and-a-half hours to clear it out to build the opulent Duke’s palace for “Rigoletto” in its place. At the same time, dozens of stagehands in hard hats flood in to start dismantling the set. The curtain falls, the performers onstage embrace. “We were all doing each other’s jobs just to get the show on,” Langan said.Ĥ:16 p.m. During the Omicron wave in late December and early January, about 100 people a week were testing positive, according to the company. The virus forced her to miss two months of work.

It has been about a month since Langan returned to a full workload since contracting coronavirus - one of 860-some cases at the Met since the start of the season. “Here we begin,” said Cristobel Langan, another stage manager, repeating the three words she says as a ritual at the top of every opera. In the wings, John Coleman, a stage manager, flashes a thumbs-up at the bass James Creswell, who nods that he is ready.

The curtain goes up on ‘The Rake’s Progress.’ And its last day was going to be a marathon: a matinee of Stravinsky’s “The Rake’s Progress” and an evening performance of Verdi’s “Rigoletto” before stagehands had less than 48 hours to ready the opera house for American Ballet Theater’s run of “Don Quixote,” opening Monday evening.ġ:05 p.m. On Saturday, the Met mounted its final operas of a rewarding but - as many employees will admit - exhausting season.

But the Met was able to turn to an extensive list of covers and other artists to fill in. There were nearly 200 opera performances over the course of the season, and nearly 150 Covid-related cancellations of principal singers and conductors. It’s not that the company escaped the virus.

Metropolitan opera house phone