MUSIC

Snow Leads Met Opera to Cancel a Premiere; All Broadway Shows Canceled

Clearing snow in Times Square on Monday. CreditJustin Lane/European Pressphoto Agency

The snowstorm forced the Metropolitan Opera to cancel one of the highlights of its season: Monday night’s planned premiere of a new production of a double bill of Tchaikovsky’s “Iolanta,” starring Anna Netrebko, and Bartok’s “Bluebeard’s Castle.”

On the Great White Way, which was getting whiter by the minute, all Monday evening performances were canceled, including “The Phantom of the Opera” which had planned to mark the show’s 27th anniversary on Monday.

And noting that the coming storm was already being called “historic,” the comedian Louis CK canceled his Tuesday night performance at Madison Square Garden — writing in an email to his fans that “I didn’t know you could call a thing historic if it hasn’t happened yet.”

As the huge winter storm approached, presenters throughout the region wrestled with the question of whether to cancel or go ahead. Artists and performers, meanwhile, struggled to get into town, as those coming from afar grappled with canceled flights and those who live closer tried to plot their routes as officials announced plans to cancel some train service and close some roads. There were fears about the audience members: even if they came out, could they get home again?

The Met had originally hoped its show would go on: it was the opening night of one of its six new productions this season, with a big post-performance party planned. But by midday, city and state officials had announced that streets would be closed to nonemergency vehicles at 11 p.m., before the opera was set to end, that subways would have limited service and that many commuter rails lines would be closed. The Met said that it would offer refunds or exchanges to ticket holders, and that the production would have its premiere on Thursday night.

Carnegie Hall decided to close its doors Monday as well, postponing several concerts.

And if people were thinking of taking advantage of the snow day Tuesday with some dry, artsy indoor time at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, they will have to think again: the museum announced that it would be closed Tuesday, along with the Cloisters.

Status of Airports, Trains, Schools and Other Services in the New York Area

What is open and closed as the New York region prepares for a blizzard. Updated 6:59 PM

Subways

CANCELLATIONS

Limited subway service after 7 p.m. The M.T.A. will suspend all service at 11 p.m.

Current status via M.T.A.

Buses

CANCELLATIONS

Systemwide delays and detours in New York City, where buses will shut down by 11 p.m. Bus service in Connecticut will be canceled starting at 8 p.m. NJ Transit suspended after 10 p.m.

Current status via M.T.A.

CT Transit

N.J. Transit

Schools

CLOSED

New York City schools canceled Tuesday.

New York City public schools

School Closings Around the Region (NBC)

Show more services

The New York Philharmonic canceled several rehearsals this week, including an open rehearsal scheduled for Wednesday, and announced that as a result it would substitute Stravinsky’s more frequently played “Firebird Suite” for his “Song of the Nightingale” on this week’s program, which is being conducted by David Robertson. The rest of the program, which will include Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with Emanuel Ax as soloist, will remain the same.

For Broadway, the storm’s timing couldn’t have been better in terms of limiting the economic impact, since Mondays have the fewest performances of the week and Mondays and Tuesdays are usually slow sellers anyway. The Broadway League announced in the afternoon that all Monday evening performances would be canceled. Charlotte St. Martin, the executive director of the league, said it would issue an update Tuesday morning about Tuesday’s performances.

The Jujamcyn theater landlords, who own five of Broadway’s 40 theaters, and Telecharge offered advance exchanges for “Jersey Boys” for Tuesday without a fee, and said that if an official snow day was declared, it would offer refunds.

Broadway and Off Broadway producers probably would not decide until Tuesday whether to go ahead with performances on Tuesday night.

New York City Ballet, which does not perform on Mondays, postponed a seminar that was to have been held Monday at the David H. Koch Theater featuring young dancers. A number of performances at Juilliard on Monday and Tuesday were canceled.

Terminal 5 has pushed back a Marilyn Manson concert to Thursday from Monday. Webster Hall postponed events scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, including an MTV party to celebrate the debut album from “The X Factor” group Fifth Harmony, which was moved to Feb. 2 from Tuesday. The first night of Bettye LaVette’s engagement at Café Carlyle, which was planned for Tuesday, was canceled, and Symphony Space canceled a conversation with the writer Colm Toibin planned for Monday, and a debate that had been planned for Tuesday.

The OWL trio cancelled both its Monday sets at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

And an event that had been scheduled Tuesday night at the Museum of Jewish Heritage — a Living Memorial to the Holocaust to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day was postponed, and will be rescheduled, the museum said.