Exciting news from the Met!
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1lilithcat
From today's New York Times:
Met to Broadcast Live Operas Into Movie Theaters
By DANIEL J. WAKIN
Coming soon to your multiplex in the mall: bel canto fireworks and bass-baritone rumbles, love duets and orchestral colors, divas, tenors and trills.
The Metropolitan Opera announced today that it would begin broadcasting live performances into movie theaters across the United States, Canada and Britain, rubbing shoulders with professional wrestling and rock concerts.
The broadcasts are part of a strategy by the Met’s new general manager, Peter Gelb, to widen the house’s appeal by branching out into new media. The house also said today that it was opening up its vast archive of historic radio broadcast performances for streaming and downloading.
“I think what I’m doing is exactly what the Met engaged me to do, which is build bridges to a broader public,” Mr. Gelb said. “The thrust of our plan is to make the Met more available. This is not about dumbing down the Met, it’s just making it accessible.”
The Met was able to move forward with the plan after reaching agreements with its unions over fees. Opera broadcasts have already dwindled because of the high costs to produce them, and provisions do not even exist for digital delivery, like Internet streaming and downloading.
Mr. Gelb said that the unions agreed, essentially, to end the arrangement of receiving high up-front fees and payments for later uses of a broadcast, and instead will permit unlimited exploitation by the Met of broadcasts in exchange for sharing future revenues.
“We are in a position of really controlling our content,” Mr. Gelb said. The next potential steps will be to offer performances on satellite, on-demand cable, DVD and CD. But he added that the potential for these new markets was unclear.
David Lennon, president of Local 802 of the American Federation of Musicians, which represents the Met orchestra, said the arrangement would provide a “significant guarantee of additional revenue” for the players. Other union leaders said the agreements reflected the understanding that increasing audience through technology would make opera healthier.
For now, the Met has arrangements with three companies that provide programming to movie theaters. They will transmit six performances, all on this year’s slate of regular Met Saturday afternoon broadcasts, starting on Dec. 30 with a shortened, translated version of “Die Zauberflote,” directed by Julie Taymor. The other broadcasts will be of “I Puritani,” starring Anna Netrebko; “The First Emperor” by Tan Dun, a new opera; “Yevgeny Onegin” with Renée Fleming and Dmitri Hvorostovsky, conducted by Valery Gergiev; “The Barber of Seville”; and “Il Trittico.” “Barber” and “Trittico” are also new productions.
Mr. Gelb, who first revealed his hope to create such simulcasts in February, said they would be broadcast in high definition with “fantastic surround sound.” They will be shown in 100 to 200 theaters at first, he said, and then 200 to 300, with tickets costing around $18 in the United States. The performances will also be broadcast on PBS, which is the co-producer.
“There’s a great spectator quality to opera that can take advantage of new technology and work on the large screen in movie theaters,” Mr. Gelb said. And the demand for Saturday broadcast opera is well in place around the country after 75 years of Met Opera on the radio.
“We have a built-in audience of loyal radio listeners, whom we expect to embrace this idea,” he said.
Marc A. Scorca, the president of Opera America, a service organization, said he knew of no other regular broadcasts in the United States, although the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden had shown several performances in theaters in France several years ago.
While acknowledging that some purists may frown on the broadcasts, Mr. Scorca dismissed such concerns.
“Opera is always best in opera house in live performance,” he said. “If this is a way to build curiosity, I think that’s great. Even if it gets people to be more excited about opera in any form, that’s good.”
Mr. Gelb was cagey about whether the broadcasts would be a source of income. “The biggest benefit for the Met initially is to actually make all these productions and reach this huge audience,” he said. “We hope to make money from it.” He also said an expanded media presence for performances would make the Met more attractive to stars.
As for the historic recordings, Mr. Gelb said he expected them to be available within the first weeks of the season through the Rhapsody Internet service. The Met is in the middle of restoring its archival broadcasts, having completed more than 400 of about 1,400.
Met to Broadcast Live Operas Into Movie Theaters
By DANIEL J. WAKIN
Coming soon to your multiplex in the mall: bel canto fireworks and bass-baritone rumbles, love duets and orchestral colors, divas, tenors and trills.
The Metropolitan Opera announced today that it would begin broadcasting live performances into movie theaters across the United States, Canada and Britain, rubbing shoulders with professional wrestling and rock concerts.
The broadcasts are part of a strategy by the Met’s new general manager, Peter Gelb, to widen the house’s appeal by branching out into new media. The house also said today that it was opening up its vast archive of historic radio broadcast performances for streaming and downloading.
“I think what I’m doing is exactly what the Met engaged me to do, which is build bridges to a broader public,” Mr. Gelb said. “The thrust of our plan is to make the Met more available. This is not about dumbing down the Met, it’s just making it accessible.”
The Met was able to move forward with the plan after reaching agreements with its unions over fees. Opera broadcasts have already dwindled because of the high costs to produce them, and provisions do not even exist for digital delivery, like Internet streaming and downloading.
Mr. Gelb said that the unions agreed, essentially, to end the arrangement of receiving high up-front fees and payments for later uses of a broadcast, and instead will permit unlimited exploitation by the Met of broadcasts in exchange for sharing future revenues.
“We are in a position of really controlling our content,” Mr. Gelb said. The next potential steps will be to offer performances on satellite, on-demand cable, DVD and CD. But he added that the potential for these new markets was unclear.
David Lennon, president of Local 802 of the American Federation of Musicians, which represents the Met orchestra, said the arrangement would provide a “significant guarantee of additional revenue” for the players. Other union leaders said the agreements reflected the understanding that increasing audience through technology would make opera healthier.
For now, the Met has arrangements with three companies that provide programming to movie theaters. They will transmit six performances, all on this year’s slate of regular Met Saturday afternoon broadcasts, starting on Dec. 30 with a shortened, translated version of “Die Zauberflote,” directed by Julie Taymor. The other broadcasts will be of “I Puritani,” starring Anna Netrebko; “The First Emperor” by Tan Dun, a new opera; “Yevgeny Onegin” with Renée Fleming and Dmitri Hvorostovsky, conducted by Valery Gergiev; “The Barber of Seville”; and “Il Trittico.” “Barber” and “Trittico” are also new productions.
Mr. Gelb, who first revealed his hope to create such simulcasts in February, said they would be broadcast in high definition with “fantastic surround sound.” They will be shown in 100 to 200 theaters at first, he said, and then 200 to 300, with tickets costing around $18 in the United States. The performances will also be broadcast on PBS, which is the co-producer.
“There’s a great spectator quality to opera that can take advantage of new technology and work on the large screen in movie theaters,” Mr. Gelb said. And the demand for Saturday broadcast opera is well in place around the country after 75 years of Met Opera on the radio.
“We have a built-in audience of loyal radio listeners, whom we expect to embrace this idea,” he said.
Marc A. Scorca, the president of Opera America, a service organization, said he knew of no other regular broadcasts in the United States, although the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden had shown several performances in theaters in France several years ago.
While acknowledging that some purists may frown on the broadcasts, Mr. Scorca dismissed such concerns.
“Opera is always best in opera house in live performance,” he said. “If this is a way to build curiosity, I think that’s great. Even if it gets people to be more excited about opera in any form, that’s good.”
Mr. Gelb was cagey about whether the broadcasts would be a source of income. “The biggest benefit for the Met initially is to actually make all these productions and reach this huge audience,” he said. “We hope to make money from it.” He also said an expanded media presence for performances would make the Met more attractive to stars.
As for the historic recordings, Mr. Gelb said he expected them to be available within the first weeks of the season through the Rhapsody Internet service. The Met is in the middle of restoring its archival broadcasts, having completed more than 400 of about 1,400.
2pechmerle
Wow. Lot of promising stuff in there. I am particularly excited by the prospect of being able to obtain downloads of historic Met broadcasts!
3Eurydice
Wonderful. The possibility of going to a movie theatre in my area to see one of their performances is enticing: for me, even the $18 is a fair amount - but worth it, if I can manage. That and the downloads are quite exciting. Have they released a list of locations, yet?
4marietherese
This would be very exciting if I thought there was any chance at all of any movie theater in my market (San Diego, California) actually hosting one of these broadcasts, but I imagine a snowball has a better chance in hell... :-(
5Sackler
marietherese, don't abandon hope. Opera shows up in the weirdest places! Maybe theater owners will see operas as a way to use a niche market to fill the theater on slow nights. I'll bet there's at least one struggling art movie house in San Diego! Dallas supports three, which shows that even in the heart of Philistinia there are still people who want to see...well, art movies.
6lilithcat
I've just seen a New York Times article stating that this project was very successful, so much so that the Met is going to do it again next season! Yay!
7HouseholdOpera
Hooray! Maybe next year they'll show the simulcasts in a movie theater a little closer to where I live so I can actually get to see them.
