Met Opera starts regular Sunday matinees, breaking tradition

NEW YORK >> Some in the audience wore tuxedos and evening gowns, others wore jeans and sneakers. There was even a man wearing a black sleeveless shirt and blue suede cowboy boots.

The Metropolitan Opera began regular Sundayafternoon staged performances for the first time in its 136-year history with Puccini’s “Turandot,” an effort to boost ticket sales and revenue.

“I love it. Outstanding,” said E.G. Fisher, a 51-yearold New Yorker who was attending the performance with his 15-yearold daughter, Bella, a high school junior. “We get to watch the whole opera and don’t have to go home early and do homework.”

As part of three-year labor contracts agreed to in the summer of 2018, the Met has the right to present up to 17 Sunday matinees this season and 27 in 2020-21. Any Sunday show will be followed by a Monday off for both performances and orchestra rehearsals. And Tuesdaymorning rehearsals will have limits.

“On a weekend people can relax and devote three or four hours that an opera takes,” Met general manager Peter Gelb said. “This is not confined to the Met. Sunday matinees on Broadway have been hugely successful.”

Last season saw 75 percent of tickets sold and 69 percent of box office revenue capacity realized factoring in discounts, down from 90 percent in the 1990s. The Met said 78 percent of Sunday’s tickets were sold to paying customers and next Sunday’s performance of the Gershwins’ “Porgy and Bess” is sold out.

The Met has long presented seven performances a week from fall through spring: evenings from Monday through Saturday, plus a Saturday matinee. The Saturday afternoon shows have been featured since 1931 on radio, a series that runs from December through the end of the season. High-definition video simulcasts to theaters started in 200607 and now transmit about 10 matinees per season.

There were Grand Sunday Night Concerts from 1883-1944 plus the occasional Sunday-night staged gala, including the premieres of Herbert Graf’s production of Verdi’s “Otello” with Georg Solti conducting in 1963 and of Marc Chagall’s designs of Mozart’s “Die Zauberfloete (The Magic Flute)” in 1967.

But moving forward, there will be regular Sunday afternoons and fewer Monday evenings — traditionally the dressiest night of the week at the Met, with a marked increase of men in white tie and tailcoats.

“This will be a massive shift in lifestyle for all of us,” said Brad Gemeinhardt, a third horn and representative of the Met’s orchestra committee. “For those of us with families and children in school, we now have committed another weekend day to the Met, which means we no longer have a full day to spend with our families.”