Opera Stars, Fearing Radiation, Skip Tour of Japan

Two of the biggest stars of New York’s Metropolitan Opera have bowed out of a Japan tour, citing fears of radioactive contamination and sending the company scrambling to find last-minute stand-ins. Soprano Anna Netrebko and tenor Joseph Calleja announced just days before the opening show that they would not join the tour of Nagoya and Tokyo despite experts’ assurances they would be safe, forcing the Met to “scour the world” for replacements, general manager Peter Gelb said Tuesday. “Part of what makes opera such an exciting art form is that it is so unpredictable,” Gelb said. “If there were a rationality clause in opera singers’ contracts, not many opera singers would perform.”

Japan was hit by a devastating earthquake and tsunami on March 11 that left about 25,000 people dead or missing and crippled a nuclear power station north of Tokyo, setting off radiation leaks. The plant remains unstable, though the leaks have declined substantially. Tokyo briefly registered nominally higher radiation levels in its air and water, but they have subsided to pre-tsunami levels. There was never any scientific concern of a radiation impact on Nagoya, which is much farther away.

The disaster and the uncertainty it spawned caused a spate of concert cancellations, and the arts scene is only now returning to normal. Along with pop music and sports events, classical concerts by the Vienna Boys Chior, the Lyon Orchestra and the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra also were nixed, along with performances by violinists Hillary Hahn and Anne Sophie Mutter. “Of course, Tokyo is safe,” said Momoko Serizawa, a spokeswoman for concert organizer Japan Arts. “But the visit by the Met comes at a very important and delicate time and we hope it will give impetus to others to follow soon.” Not all artists have stayed away — last month, opera great Placido Domingo performed in Japan and later donated $200,000.

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