Among the unions The Metropolitan Opera’s executive leadership is waging war, is International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Local One. While all of the Met’s union employees require lead time to adequately prepare, IATSE deadlines are firmest.
The union employees, which include stagehands, technicians, and skilled craftspeople, actually build everything you see on stage. That’s not something you can rush without risking injury and throughout negotiations the Union representatives have made it clear that in order to get a production up and running before the end of 2021, there are clear deadlines.
One of those just passed and in what should come as a shock to no one, IATSE reps indicated there was no way they could make the deadline for the planned September 27, 2021 production of “Fire Shut up in my Bones” so the Met cancelled it.
The Associated Press published an article on 1/28/2021 by Ronald Blum that examines The Metropolitan Opera's finances. Nutshell: they saw the same drop in…