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The Met troupe arrived in the central Japan city of Nagoya late Monday for a 14-performance tour, their seventh visit to the country, starting Saturday.
"Anything can happen in the volcanic world of opera, and with this tour it seems that our volcano has momentarily erupted," Met general manager Peter Gelb said.
"While sympathetic to those artists who felt compelled to withdraw, we are particularly grateful to the stars that are rallying to our side from around the world in support of the Met and the Japanese people," he said.
"Thanks to them, our show will go on."
A 9.0-magnitude earthquake and monster tsunami ravaged Japan's northeast region on March 11, crippling the nuclear plant some 220 kilometres (140 miles) northeast of Tokyo, which has since been leaking radiation into the environment. Nagoya is farther south down the Pacific coast.
The radiation scare due to the world's worst nuclear accident since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster sent foreigners fleeing from Japan and saw the number of visitors from abroad plunge.
Netrebko, who was born in 1971 in the southern Russian city of Krasnodar, "changed her mind because of the emotional weight of having also lived through the tragedy of Chernobyl," the Met statement said.
"She didn't feel that she would be able to present her best performances and didn't want to disappoint her Japanese fans."
Calleja, 33, "also had last-minute misgivings about performing in Japan at this time," the Met added.
To make up for their absence, young soporano Marina Poplavskaya from Moscow was released from a concert in Paris to join the tour, along with star tenor Marcelo Alvarez, who had been vacationing in Argentina, and fellow tenor Rolando Villazon.
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"Anything can happen in the volcanic world of opera, and with this tour it seems that our volcano has momentarily erupted," Met general manager Peter Gelb said.
"While sympathetic to those artists who felt compelled to withdraw, we are particularly grateful to the stars that are rallying to our side from around the world in support of the Met and the Japanese people," he said.
"Thanks to them, our show will go on."
A 9.0-magnitude earthquake and monster tsunami ravaged Japan's northeast region on March 11, crippling the nuclear plant some 220 kilometres (140 miles) northeast of Tokyo, which has since been leaking radiation into the environment. Nagoya is farther south down the Pacific coast.
The radiation scare due to the world's worst nuclear accident since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster sent foreigners fleeing from Japan and saw the number of visitors from abroad plunge.
Netrebko, who was born in 1971 in the southern Russian city of Krasnodar, "changed her mind because of the emotional weight of having also lived through the tragedy of Chernobyl," the Met statement said.
"She didn't feel that she would be able to present her best performances and didn't want to disappoint her Japanese fans."
Calleja, 33, "also had last-minute misgivings about performing in Japan at this time," the Met added.
To make up for their absence, young soporano Marina Poplavskaya from Moscow was released from a concert in Paris to join the tour, along with star tenor Marcelo Alvarez, who had been vacationing in Argentina, and fellow tenor Rolando Villazon.
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