Productions

Technical rehearsals for next season’s new productions will be compromised, Gelb said. The chorus usually returns to the Met at the start of August and the orchestra right after Labor Day.

The Met, citing force majeure, is not paying individual singers for canceled performances.

“In the history of theater and opera, in force majeure situations, artists who are very well compensated, such as those who perform at the Met, do not get paid. That’s why their contracts are written in such a fashion,” Gelb said. “That does not mean that we are not sympathetic and supportive of them. For the Met to be able to come back and be a house they are able to perform in in the fall, it has to be strong and has to survive.”

The Lyric Opera of Chicago, which called off its highly anticipated presentation of Wagner’s Ring Cycle, is paying the singers 10%, the company said. The Atlanta Opera, a smaller regional company, paid its cast for the two canceled performances of “Porgy and Bess.”

The English National Opera sent an email Monday to the cast of conductors of three scheduled productions that “we will be honoring all contracts until the end of the main stage opera season, up to and including performances on April 18.”

No decisions have been made by The Royal Opera, Britain’s largest opera company, which said in a statement “we are currently working through the planning on all aspects of temporary closure with all staff and artists a priority.”