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| Simulcast on screen outside the Metropolitan Opera House |
The first time I saw an opera, I didn't realize it was live. I was at a movie theatre at the mall. I had threaded my way through the video game machines and the snack bar. So how could what I was seeing it at the Empire Theatre in Charlottetown possibly be happening at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City at the very same moment?
Technology, of course. The simulcast technology that has allowed fans to watch sports events has now been turned to muscular achievements of a different sort. That, and the desire of the Met to spread their fine performances far and wide. The chance that I, or thousands of others like me, will ever have the wherewithal to get to the Met is slim.
Now, all I have to do is get to the movies.
The live HD performances of Saturday Met performances began last year in a couple of hundred theatres around the world. The convenient fact that the opera begins at one in the afternoon in New York means that it can be simulcast in a large number of places at a relatively reasonable hour. The partnership with Empire Theatres has meant the opera is available in eight theatres in Atlantic Canada. This year, viewers here will join others in 400 movie theatres world wide—nearly triple the number of venues from last year.
Back in the day when opera was pop music, a trip to the opera house was not the bejeweled, high-end event it is today. People brought picnics. They talked and loudly expressed their opinions about the music and performers. In some way, going to the opera at the movies is kind of the same. People bring snacks (I mean they buy tiny five dollar boxes of popcorn). And, after some initial reverential quiet, they start shouting out their approval and applauding. And it's a three hour performance, with intermissions, so it's nice to get comfortable and not worry about wrinkling the gown.
I was curious, when I first went, to see who else would be there. One of the objectives of The Metropolitan Opera: Live in High Definition series is to bring a younger audience to the opera. And surprisingly, at least to me, it worked. The audience was sparse for the first performance. But by the time we got to The Marriage of Figaro, the big, stadium seating theatre was completely sold out, children, teenagers and everyone else on up.
Because that's the thing. Even if you think you don't like opera, or don't know anything about it, chances are you have some vague notion about Figaro. You have probably heard of Roméo et Juliette, Plácido Domingo, Hansel and Gretel, Macbeth, Puccini, Ben Heppner or Franco Zeffirelli, all of whom will be featured in some form or another this season. Anyone who has seen Rent has seen an updated version of La Bohème. This winter, you can see the original.
And that's the very best thing about this—it's good for the opera aficionado, it's good for the curious dabbler. In the happy comfort of a familiar setting, we settle in, sip tea from the thermos and shout bravo.
The Metropolitan Opera: Live in High Definition series will present eight performances, beginning on December 15, 2007, with Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, starring Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón.
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