Man Sprinkles Ashes into Met Orchestra Pit; Opera Cancelled

October 29, 2016, 8:04 PM · The Metropolitan Opera cancelled the remainder of a performance of Rossini's Guillaume Tell (aka "William Tell") before Act IV Saturday afternoon, when a man sprinkled what appeared to be ashes in the orchestra pit.

Police said the man told other patrons he was there specifically to sprinkle the ashes during the performance, the New York Times reported. There was no criminal intent, police said, and the ashes were reportedly those of the man's mentor.

The incident occurred around 4:30 p.m. and caused an immediate evacuation of the building. Musicians apparently had to leave their instruments in the pit initially. Here is a tweet from the MET Orchestra Musicians:

Saturday, October 29, 2016
Performance of Rossini's "William Tell" cancelled before Act IV. My viola case (black cover) is still in the pit! pic.twitter.com/89m17K3YjJ
— Vincent Lionti (@vinlionti) October 29, 2016

As are all of our instruments! ???????? https://t.co/nhn2VK4IMs
— METOrchMusicians (@METOrchestra) October 29, 2016

The incident also caused the cancellation of Saturday evening’s performance of L’Italiana in Algeri while the authorities investigated.

Replies

LaNette Urbin

October 30, 2016 at 04:01 AM · This may be a dumb question, but why did they have to evacuate? Why did they have to leave the instruments?

50.108.183.59

October 30, 2016 at 04:05 AM · They were thinking Anthrax or any type of powder used by terrorists.

Paul Deck

October 30, 2016 at 11:55 AM · Book 'em, Danno.

Bailey Tincher

October 30, 2016 at 02:46 PM · @Paul Made my day with that one

199.46.250.154

November 3, 2016 at 01:23 PM · LaNette: would you want to inhale someone's body parts? Just breathing in somone's ashes makes me cringe........ok, if the substance was not immediately recognized as being human parts....I would not want to wait. I would grab Frieda (my violin) and head for the nearest exit with my should cloth over my mouth and nose.

So much for The Show Must Go On. Forget it!!!

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