Mezzo-Soprano Anita Rachvelishvili Sues The Met Over Discrimination

Rachvelishvili claims the opera house fired her because of her pregnancy, leaving her out of pocket for $400,000

The Georgian mezzo-soprano Anita Rachvelishvili has sued the Metropolitan Opera for unspecified damages, claiming the company discriminated against her because she was pregnant.

According to Broadway World, Rachvelishvili has filed a Manhattan federal lawsuit claiming that the Met was unfair to cancel her contract to sing operas including Aida, La Gioconda, Carmen, and Don Carlo between 2022 and 2025. The total value of the contract was more than $400,000.

In January 2023, the Met asserted that Rachvelishvili was experiencing "deterioration of vocal quality" brought on by her pregnancy. In court documents, Rachvelishvili noted that at the time she was "temporarily limited in her very highest vocal range," but argued that this did not have an impact on her work.

Further, she alleges that the company initially agreed to buy out her contract, but later changed its mind and backed out of the deal.

Rachvelishvili alleges that she then attempted to take her case to the union, which refused to represent her.

"I loved performing on the Met stage and looked forward to returning after the birth of my first child," Rachvelishvili said. "I was shocked that I was not given a chance to recover and all of my contracts for the next two years were immediately canceled without pay."

"After supporting the Met throughout the pandemic, I am disappointed, to say the least, at this harmful treatment."

"The cancellations at the Met negatively affected other bookings throughout the world," said Rachvelishvili’s attorney, Leonard Egert. "Opera singers are booked out years in advance. This created a negative cascade event for her. It had a devastating effect but she’s coming back — slowly but surely."

The Violin Channel has yet to receive a comment from The Met regarding the case.