In the third act of the weekend's most operatic event, a Dallas aria fanatic who scattered a friend's ashes in the Metropolitan Opera orchestra pit Saturday afternoon — interrupting one performance and forcing the cancellation of a second as police investigated a potential terrorist attack — officially apologized Wednesday.
“I never imagined I would ever need to sit down and write an apology to several thousand opera goers, to all the people behind the scenes and in the productions, to the staff of such a beloved arts organization, and to New York’s emergency responders,” the tourist, Roger Kaiser, wrote in a letter emailed to Met officials and first published by the New York Times. “Yet I find myself needing to extend a heartfelt apology to all concerned for inadvertently creating a disturbance at the Metropolitan Opera last weekend.”
Kaiser's note addressed to Met general manager Peter Gelb and the "entire Metropolitan Opera community" characterized his actions on Saturday as a "sweet gesture to a dying friend that went completely and utterly wrong in ways that [he] could never have imagined."
The self-described "devoted opera enthusiast" said the white powder he sprinkled during an intermission of Saturday's matinee performance of Giacchino Rossini's "Guillaume Tell," which resembled anthrax, were the ashes of his friend and opera mentor Terry Turner, who died of cancer in 2012.
"While we were discussing his situation in the hospital ... I told Terry that if he would like, I would take some of his ashes to opera houses that I visited in the future," Kaiser wrote. "Trying to lighten the mood, I jokingly told Terry they would never be able to vacuum all of him up. He would be there forever enjoying all the beautiful music."
Police investigators who tracked down Kaiser and determined the powder he released was harmless decided, after consulting with the Met, against pressing charges.
Still, Kaiser said he regretted the hubbub that his "downright foolish" tribute to Turner and his own enthusiasm for opera had caused at the Met Saturday: "I impacted people who came to see an opera that was being performed at the Met for the first time in 80 years... I am really not sure I will ever be able to forgive myself for that."
In a response, Gelb accepted Kaiser's apology while chastising him for "caus[ing] the members of our company several anxious hours, severely disappoint[ing] our audiences, and cost[ing] the Met, its artist and City many thousands of dollars."
The general manager didn't excommunicate the misguided opera fan but said, "I trust that your future visits to the Met will be without incident, and that you will continue to proselytize about your love of opera to all those who will listen."
It's hard to blame an opera fan for getting "caught up in the romanticism," as Kaiser put it, of a grand gesture and failing to consider the "ugly possibilities," because that's exactly the kind of person the genre appeals to.
And anyway, we suspect Gelb hopes the commotion-related free press will bump up flagging ticket sales at the Met's box office.
His new selling point could be: you really never know what might happen during a night at the opera.
