A performance of “Carmen” at the Metropolitan Opera was disrupted Friday night by demonstrators, including at least one who made his way onstage during Act 1, setting off confusion and then anger from the audience and bringing the production to a halt, eyewitnesses said.
Three demonstrators were arrested by the New York City police — called in by Metropolitan Opera security officers — and removed from the hall. While it was not immediately clear what they were protesting, eyewitnesses said one of them had denounced David H. Koch, the billionaire industrialist, a polarizing figure who poured much of his fortune into right-wing causes and a campaign to discredit the idea of climate change. An attendee said that one of the protesters had used disparaging words from the stage to describe Koch and had shouted, “You know I’m right.”
Koch has close ties to Lincoln Center. The theater next to the opera house, home to New York City Ballet, is named after Koch, who died in 2019 and was a major arts benefactor.
The performance was suspended for about 15 minutes.
“I am at the Met Opera experiencing Carmen,” Gale A. Brewer, a member of the New York City Council, posted on X at about 9 p.m. “A great production but there is some disturbance/protest so the opera has been temporarily suspended.”
A short while later, Brewer updated her report: “Carmen resumed.”
Protests at arts events have become common over these past few years — most recently in response to the Israeli military’s killings of civilians in Gaza. But the appearance of protesters onstage was a cause of at least momentary befuddlement that gave way to anger and shouts from the audience of “Loser” and “Put them in jail.”
A spokeswoman for the Met said that some protesters had been heard talking about Project 2025, the political initiative drawn up by the conservative Heritage Foundation that has been used as a blueprint for remaking the government during Trump’s second administration.
“We don’t have all the information about what the protesters were protesting yet,” said Jen Luzzo, the press director for the Met. “It’s still a little hazy.”
This production of “Carmen,” which opened in 2024, updates Bizet’s classic opera, setting it in America on what seems to be the border with Mexico, though it does not specifically address the immigration issue that Mr. Trump has championed during his first year in office.
Adam Nagourney is a Times reporter covering cultural, government and political stories in New York and California.
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