Metro

Blight at the opera

This opera was a tragedy.

Rowdy opera buffs booed the Swiss director of a new production of “Tosca” off the stage at the Met on opening night — appalled by the stripped-down, cheesy sets and horrific stage direction he gave to the legendary Puccini work.

“I did not like it. I thought it was shabby,” said Marilyn Whitehorn of Brooklyn. “In the first act, I thought the staging was more like a warehouse than a church.”

The crowd — including luminaries like designer Diane von Furstenberg and actor Edward Norton — erupted into an angry chorus of boos Monday when director Luc Bondy took his curtain call.

“People were not happy,” Whitehorn said. “When the director came out, you could hear those boos loud and clear.”

That prompted Metropolitan Opera officials to take the unusual step of immediately closing the curtain rather than do the perfunctory dozens of curtain calls.

What had opera lovers — who had plunked down as much as $1,250 a ticket — hitting high notes of rage were Bondy’s mishandling of the action at key moments and set designer Richard Peduzzi’s minimalist and cheaper sets.

The stinker replaced the highly popular and ornate multimillion-dollar production designed by Italian legend Franco Zeffirelli that had been performed at the Met since 1985. Zeffirelli did not have kind words for Bondy’s efforts.

“He’s not second-rate. He’s third-rate,” Zeffirelli said, according to a report. “You can’t stage an opera without keeping in mind what the author wanted.”

The enraged reaction highlights the uneasy relationship the traditionalist-minded opera crowd has had with the Met’s new general manager, Peter Gelb, in his push to modernize the cultural landmark.

“I think people don’t like change and it was a bit of a political response to Peter Gelb’s new scheme of innovation,” said attorney Bryan Johnson, a season subscriber. “It was a very rowdy crowd. It was a little shocking.”

In Bondy’s defense, Gelb said he knew replacing a pop ular production like Zeffirelli’s was a “hot- button issue.” He said the opera would not change a thing.

“For those people who are unhappy, what do they want us to do? Run the same production for the next 50 years?” he said. “If we don’t up date productions, this art form will die out.”

That logic may have difficulty winning converts.

“I miss the Zeffirelli staging. I like the detailing of it,” said subscriber Cathie Lyons, of the Upper West Side. “This was new and different — shockingly different when compared to Zeffirelli.”

But the new approach has its supporters.

“I thoroughly enjoyed the opera,” good-taste expert Martha Stewart said. “The performances were excellent and the art direction was very different from the last ‘Tosca.’ I enjoyed the sets and bravo to Mr. Gelb for a beautiful night.”

lukas.alpert@nypost.com