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Mozart
in high-def: The Magic Flute.
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Popcorn
and Papageno
‘It’s
not the same as seeing it live on stage,” said one audience
member, “but I love the close-ups.”
We’d just watched Mozart’s The Magic Flute, in Julie
“Lion King” Taymor’s production, as it was performed
at the Metropolitan Opera House on Dec. 30, the broadcast
that opened a new and revolutionary Live From the Met
concept: See it live in a theater near you. Only it wasn’t
Dec. 30—it was a couple of Tuesdays ago. And it was a rebroadcast.
And that’s why there were tickets available.
When the Met released tickets for this new series, shown locally
at Regal Cinemas at Crossgates Mall, it sold out almost instantly.
If, like me, you were paying only moderate attention, you
were out of luck.
With rebroadcasts added to the schedule, seats are available.
And with the overwhelming success of this series, here and
throughout the world, more screens are being added and tickets
even for the live broadcasts are again becoming available.
For Albany-area opera fans, the Metropolitan Opera is a mere
three hours away. But you still need to shell out $40 to $300
to see the upcoming Eugene Onegin. The Crossgates ticket,
on the other hand, is $18. And you can bring popcorn to your
seat.
Generations of opera lovers have been created and maintained
by the weekly Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts; more recent
Live from the Met television events have added a look
at the productions. But the Met’s new managing director, Peter
Gelb, has upped visibility with a series that satellite-beams
high-definition transmissions to specially equipped theaters
around the world.
Ten high-definition cameras are positioned both in the house
and backstage; microphone placement recreates the surround-sound
experience of listening in the hall. True, you’re looking
at close-ups of singers in stage makeup, and the singers themselves
might not be Hollywood’s first choices. My 10-year-old daughter
was disappointed in what she believed was the not-terribly-royal
appearance of The Magic Flute’s Prince, but she has
more exacting standards of beauty than I. Papageno, however,
swept her heart away.
In technological terms, these broadcasts are a huge advance
over watching Live From the Met in your living room.
Sound and screen are both greatly enhanced, with the audio
surrounding you. It’s not classical-music grade sound, being
tuned for car crashes, explosions, and bad John Williams music,
but it’s sufficient. Picture quality looks to be outstanding,
although Taymor’s Magic Flute production was designed
to be dark and video, unlike film, lacks richness at that
end of the spectrum.
But you’re watching the opera amidst a like-minded audience,
and there’s no substitute for the energy an audience generates.
Add to that the fillip of knowing that what’s onscreen is
live—at least for many of the broadcasts. My informal poll
of audience members suggests that live-ness is a compelling
draw, which may explain why the live Flute sold out,
while empty seats abounded during the re-broadcast.
The next live event features Valery Gergiev conducting Tchaikovsky’s
Eugene Onegin at 1:30 PM on Saturday, Feb. 24. This
sold out weeks ago, but the broadcast has since been moved
to a theater with a larger screen and tickets are again available
as of this writing. The next rebroadcast is Bellini’s rollicking
I Puritani with soprano Anna Netrebko at 7 PM Tuesday,
Feb. 13; tickets go on sale Feb. 3. For a complete schedule,
navigate the Internet to www.met operafamily.org/metopera
and select Watch & Listen, and you’ll also find links
to online ticket-buying.
Keep an eye on that Web site: What appears as sold out one
day may sprout tickets the next. And be sure to get there
early. Seats aren’t assigned, and you don’t want to have to
forcibly elbow your way past a phalanx of determined oldsters
to get the best view of the screen.
—B.A.
Nilsson
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Classifieds
