Poignant return for Met Opera after 18-month pandemic pause

By RONALD BLUM
Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — The Metropolitan Opera returned to its home after an 18-month absence caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Before a masked crowd of 3,600, music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin led a performance of the Verdi Requiem in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks. The Met had not performance in its house since March 11, 2020, the longest gap since the company started in 1883. Still ahead is the formal opening night of the season on Sept. 27, when Nézet-Séguin conducts Terence Blanchard’s “Fire Shut Up in My Bones,” the first work by a Black composer in the Met’s history.