The fifth season of the Metropolitan Opera's HD transmissions started today, with Richard Wagner's "Das Rheingold" broadcast live to 1500 movie theaters in 46 participating countries. If you have never been to an opera but are interested in trying it out, I absolutely recommend this as a way to experience it for the first time. Depending on where you live, there's a good chance that your local theater multiplex is a participant in the program. And for about $24, the price can't be beat. Here's a link to the Metropolitan Opera HD website which lists all the upcoming performances and more information.
Because of the live simulcast, the start time for these broadcasts here on the West Coast is usually 10am - earlier if the opera is especially long (an upcoming simulcast of "Die Walkure", scheduled to last 5 1/2 hours, will start at 9am). This season, the Met is simulcasting 12 of their operas during this season; up from 9 last year. The numbers speak to the success of this venture: 2.4 million tickets were purchased during last years' simulcasts of 9 operas while a typical attendance figure for a season at the Met is around 800,000.
The technology is amazing when you consider this is a live simulcast going out all over the world. The picture and sound quality is incredible, and yes there are subtitles so you can follow the stories. Instead of just fixing a camera on the stage, you are brought up close to each singer; this lets you see things you can't normally catch in a live performance. It's really the best seat in the house as far as I'm concerned.
I wonder how (or if) the advent of these simulcasts has affected actual attendance at the Met, or at any other opera house in the States. For myself (and I've written before about my increasing dislike of attending live performances these days), I know that I'm more apt to attend a Met simulcast (and spend $24 per ticket) than to trudge up to the War Memorial and pay upwards of $100 for a decent seat, not including parking, etc. I know that this is not helpful financially for my local Opera Company but they receive some support from me in other ways. (By the way, the SF Opera has done a few "opera in the movie theater" functions as well, but they are not live and they don't have the reach of the Met in terms of making their offerings available at your local multiplex).
Do I really want to drop $1000 on one ticket to see the Ring Cycle next summer at the War Memorial, or wait for the Met to show them at my local theater for a tenth of the price? Or wil the SF Opera film their Ring cycle and make them available on blu-ray so we can enjoy them at home, at our leisure? I'm willing to bet that the Met will do this after the season is up; the production today was one worth seeing again for sure.
I remember reading about a time over 20 years ago now when supertitles were first introduced to the Met as well as to SF Opera and other regional houses; patrons threatened to pull their subscriptions, conductors refused to conduct, and this was perceived to be the end of opera as they knew it. Instead, it opened up the art form for a whole new audience who couldn't follow opera before this. I suspect the same will happen as a result of these live simulcasts, and hopefully in-house attendance will increase not only for the Met but for many local theater companies. I think this is probably the best thing to come along for opera since the introduction of supertitles...it's certainly a game-changer.
Again, if opera seems totally alien to you, give the Met simulcasts a try - you might be surprised at how much you like opera after all!
No comments:
Post a Comment