New York opera canceled after sprinkling of suspected cremains in orchestra pit

An urn used for cremation ashes
(Image credit: kzenon/Getty Images)

New York's Metropolitan Opera canceled a show Saturday afternoon after a powdery substance believed to be the ashes left over after a cremation was sprinkled into the orchestra pit. The audience was evacuated, and though one person asked for medical attention, no one was injured.

The suspected cremains might have been an opera lover's ashes, said police investigating the incident, as a man in the audience was reportedly overheard saying "he was here to sprinkle ashes of a friend, his mentor in opera, during the performance." No arrest has been made, and though the investigation is ongoing, a representative of the New York Police Department indicated there was no evidence of criminal intent.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.