First Extended Talks at Met End Without a Labor Deal

The stagehands of the Metropolitan Opera came to work on Friday morning for technical rehearsals of a new production of Mozart's 'Le Nozze di Figaro,' and members of the chorus rehearsed the coming season, after late-night talks between a federal mediator and two of the company's largest unions brought a reprieve from a threatened lockout. Outside the opera house, the day began with a rally, with roughly 150 singers and musicians from the Met's chorus and orchestra holding a demonstration, with a melodious score, in a small park across from Lincoln Center.

Negotiations were scheduled to begin again early Friday afternoon, but the clock was ticking. Peter Gelb, the Met's general manager, postponed the lockout he had threatened for midnight on Thursday, when most of the union contracts expire, for 72 hours - creating a new deadline of midnight on Sunday and leaving it still uncertain whether the Met would shut down less than two months ahead of the opening of the season on Sept. 22.

So far, the Met has come to terms with only three of its unions, those representing ushers, ticket takers, cleaning staff, security guards, building engineers and call center workers. Contracts for 12 unions, including those of the choristers, orchestra players and stagehands, remain unresolved, and in some cases are far from resolution.

Still, there was a palpable sense of relief, however wary, among the choristers and players on Friday morning. Around 9, 150 singers and musicians, according to a police estimate, gathered at Dante Park, across Amsterdam Avenue from Lincoln Center, most wearing black T-shirts that read 'United - Metropolitan Opera' on the front, with the symbols of the unions on the back. A brass nonet from the orchestra played music by Monteverdi, Bizet, Borodin, Verdi and Handel, and union officers, members of the negotiating teams and several elected officials - including Gale A. Brewer, the Manhattan borough president, and State Assemblywoman Linda B. Rosenthal - reminded the gathered musicians of the Met's stature and the importance of reaching an agreement.

The only bellicose moment - a chant of 'Gelb's got to go,' led by Ray Hair, the president of the American Federation of Musicians, which represents the orchestra - quickly changed course when Mr. Hair said, 'But it doesn't have to be that way' and urged the Met to acknowledge the musicians' importance to the company's operation.

The Met said in a statement that it was 'hopeful' that the 72-hour extension of the negotiating period would 'allow productive talks with the unions who have not yet reached agreement with the Met.'

Mr. Gelb said in a statement, 'We want to work together with union representatives, and do everything we can to achieve new contracts, which is why we've agreed to an extension.'

Jimmy Odom, the president of the American Guild of Musical Artists, which represents the chorus, stage directors, soloists and others, said before the rally, 'We're ready to work out an agreement, but we have to address the real issues.' He was referring to the expansion of the Met's budget during Mr. Gelb's tenure. 'There are problems that go far deeper than just cutting union wages.'

Nathan Carlisle, a negotiator for the chorus, said, 'It's time for Peter Gelb to be a leader.' Asked whether he felt that the 72-hour extension left sufficient time to reach an agreement, Mr. Carlisle said that with the help of the mediator - Allison Beck, a deputy director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service - 'there's a great possibility.'

Jessica Phillips Rieske, a clarinetist in the Met Orchestra and a member of the orchestra's negotiating team, also expressed guarded hope that Ms. Beck, who joined the talks on Thursday, would be able to bring the sides together.

'I thought she was very professional, very reasonable' Ms. Phillips Rieske said of Ms. Beck, who helped bring about the 72-hour extension. 'But we haven't had negotiations in the mediation process yet, so we're taking it one day at a time. We are committed to talking until we find a solution that's fiscally responsible for the Met. We want a season. But the cuts are so severe that we are fighting for the quality of the orchestra.'

Ms. Phillips Rieske said that four players had taken jobs elsewhere since the negotiations began and that 10 others had offers for the coming season, should a contract not be reached. 'If we lose 14 out of 96 players,' she said, 'that's a lot.'

Mr. Hair said, 'Everything they've got in the endowment, they have because of what we do.'

There were plentiful indications that Ms. Beck has her work cut out for her. One of the unions, Local 1 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, which had not opted for mediation, partly because both sides had believed its talks were further along, said late on Thursday night that its negotiations had stalled and that talks would continue during a 'cooling-off period.'

In his first public statement after the lockout was postponed, Tino Gagliardi, the president of Local 802 of the American Federation of Musicians, continued to question the need for significant cost savings at the Met and said it would take more than 72 hours to reach an agreement.

'Settling this dispute in three days is highly unrealistic, given Gelb's proposed draconian cuts,' Mr. Gagliardi said in the statement, calling on Mr. Gelb to withdraw his threat to lock out workers at the opera house if deals were not reached by midnight on Sunday.

'Declaring a lockout would gravely undermine the mediation process and make it extremely difficult to reach a successful outcome, especially in time to save the 2014-2015 season,' he said in the statement.

'It is our hope that the mediated negotiations will finally yield transparency on the part of Met management, requiring it to prove why it needs upwards of $30 million in cuts to address a deficit of $2.8 million,' Mr. Gagliardi said, both in his initial statement and at the rally on Friday morning.

Mr. Gelb has said that the deficit was kept that low only by record fund-raising in recent years, which cannot be sustained indefinitely, and by dipping into the Met's endowment, which is no longer large enough to cover the expenses of a single season - a traditional red flag for a performing arts organization. He has said that donors would be willing to double the endowment to put the Met on more solid footing if they did not fear that the money would be used to plug annual deficits.

In addition, box office revenues are down, and in 2012 the Met took the unusual step of selling $100 million worth of bonds to see it through its financial problems.

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