An opera's opening night at the Metropolitan Theatre was attacked by climate rebels in New York.

Footage shows an elderly activist interrupting the Tannhauser performance as he shouted from the balcony on November 30.

He said: ‘Wake up! The spring is polluted, the spring it tainted! The spring is poisoned! This is a climate emergency! This is a climate crisis!

‘There will be no opera on a dead planet!'

During the commotion, a woman and her companion also rose from their seat with her shouting: ‘We are in a climate crisis! There is no opera on a dead planet.'

Some of the audience were furious and pushed them out to the exit, with some of them cursing: ‘Get out! Get the fuck out!' until both were shoved out of the door.

The disruption was strategically timed to coincide with a character's declaration that 'love is a spring to be drunk from.'

Extinction Rebellion's demands include declaring a climate and ecological emergency, halting biodiversity loss, and achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2025. The disruption aims to draw attention to the urgent need for systemic change in the face of a rapidly escalating climate crisis.

Tannhauser is a grand opera in three acts composed by the renowned Richard Wagner that tells the story of a knight and poet-musician's escape from a realm ruled by the goddess Venus.