A $light at the opera
Cheap Met ‘outsources’ talent: union
It’s the Thrift-Penny Opera. The Metropolitan Opera is using the pandemic as an excuse to furlough its top musicians — and fill their spots in the pit with cheap nonunion talent, critics say.
The world-renowned Lincoln Center establishment’s alleged miserly antics included using budget musicians for its livestreamed pay-per-view New Year’s Eve gala, without any mention of the symphonic skimping included in literature supplied to its donors and ticket holders.
“It is artistic malpractice and unacceptable that non-Met musicians are being hired to perform under the banner of the Metropol
itan Opera,” Adam Krauthamer, president of the musicians union AFM Local 802, wrote in a statement.
“Let’s be clear: Hiring non-Met musicians under the banner of the Metropolitan Opera and outsour
cing the orchestra’s work is an attack on the Met as an artistic institution and an insult to the very artists who work there.”
The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra Committee accused management of using the pandemic as an opportunity to make long-term cuts at the musicians’ expense.
“We have now been unpaid for 10 months and counting,” the committee said in a statement. “The Metropolitan Opera is an outlier in our industry; every other major orchestra has been compensated since the very beginning of the pandemic.”
In a September press release, Met Opera General Manager Peter Gelb said he had faith that the company and the public would understand the opera house’s belttightening in light of the pandemic.
“The inability to perform is taking a tremendous toll on our company,” Gelb said at the time. “Our future relies on making strong artistic strides, while collectively reducing our costs until the audience has fully returned.”
The Met Opera did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.
The controversy comes after a December proposal to slash the long-term contracts of stagehands by 30 percent was rejected by the workers’ union, Local One.