Opera canceled in New York

I arrived in New York City on the afternoon of Tuesday, December 6. My daughter and I checked into the hotel and walked over to The Metropolitan Opera to buy her a student ticket and me a standard ticket to Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida. I had planned the entire trip around this performance. This performance of Aida was the reason for the trip. We had to wait to get tickets until we arrived because student tickets aren’t available online.

We walked up to the ticket window and were told that the system was down and they couldn’t sell any tickets to that night’s performance. I explained we had planned our arrival around this legendary Aida production. It didn’t matter. I explained that I knew the concertmaster. No dice. It was only 5:00 pm. Maybe the system would be up before the 7:30 pm curtain. I went to metopera.org around 6:30 pm and saw a message explaining that the system was down.

My disappointment was immense, in fact, it was “immenso Ftha” to borrow a line from Aida. I have been in Aida four times but I’ve never seen it live. I was also looking forward to hearing Latonia Moore sing the title role. She performed the role at San Diego Opera in 2013 and was fantastic--at least that’s what I thought from my spot in the chorus.

My hopes were still high for Thursday, December 8, because Verd’s Rigoletto was scheduled. I’d seen Rigoletto twice and I wasn’t thrilled with the Met’s production and its Las Vegas setting but I thought my daughter might like the story better than Aida.

On Wednesday, December 7, I went to The Met website and read a new message. The Met had been hacked. A cyber attack had disabled its entire ticket, retail, email, and payroll systems. Multiple sources reported that General Director Peter Gelb had sent a letter to The Met staff explaining that payroll would be processed as soon as possible.

The Met processes about $200,000 of tickets per day. That has been suspended for three days now. This attack is affecting more than my opera tourism plans.

The question is who would perform a cyber attack on a non-profit arts organization? The initial speculation is Russia. The Met has cut ties with several singers and conductors who are favorites of Vladamir Putin. The theory is that Russia cyber-attacked The Met in response. There is no hard evidence that Russia is behind the hack but it makes sense.