Operagoers So Young, the Met Adds Changing Tables and Stroller Parking
by Michael Cooper
The average age at the Metropolitan Opera is about to get lower — much lower. Sitting still will not be required: Audience members will be encouraged to crawl around and interact with the singers if they like. The dress code will be so relaxed that many operagoers may opt for onesies.
No, the barbarians are not at the gate. The Met is presenting a new opera for babies.
The company will present 10 free performances of “BambinO,” an opera for babies between 6 months old and 18 months old, from April 30 to May 5 in the opera house’s smaller auditorium, List Hall, the Met announced on Thursday. The 40-minute opera — scored for two singers and two musicians — will be performed for a small audience of babies and caregivers.
Discerning preverbal operagoers need not fear: “BambinO” earned good reviews when it had its premiere last summer in Britain. “It worked, contrary to expectation (mine), on so many levels it’s hard to tease them apart,” Fiona Maddocks wrote in The Observer.
“In the Met’s never-ending quest to develop audiences of the future, we’ve decided to start at the very beginning,” Peter Gelb, the Met’s general manager, said in a statement.
The presentation will come near the end of a tumultuous season in which the Met fired its former music director, James Levine, for sexual misconduct, and he sued the company for breach of contract and defamation.
The opera will be performed for 25 babies, who will be seated on the laps of their caregivers on benches with cushions around the perimeter of the stage area. Changing tables and stroller parking will be provided. The Met’s education team will work with researchers in infant development and early childhood music education from the Rita Gold Early Childhood Center at Teachers College, Columbia University.
Via