
29.02.2012 / Food & Leisure
Opera hits the big screen
Ever heard of “HD Live from the MET”? Since 2006, the New York Metropolitan Opera has been satellite-broadcasting its performances live in HD to movie theaters around the world, with top-notch sound quality.
That’s an easy and popular formula: allowing everyone to to experience the Met live at their local movie theater, simply buying a fifteen-dollar ticket. Besides, the screening usually includes backstage videos and interviews with the performers or the conductor.
Although finding yourself inside a historic theater, only a few feet away from the orchestra, represents a hardly replaceable experience, Met’s satellite broadcasts have been a huge success.
The “HD Live from the MET” program has been broadcasting in over 40 countries, to 889 movie theaters in the US and in Canada, and to 852 movie theaters around Europe and the rest of the world - which comes to a total of 8 million tickets sold.
And there are more and more theaters exploring the market of satellite-broadcasted classical music concerts.
Thanks to digital platforms such as Nexo Digital, Rising Alternative and More2screen, it is now possible watch performances (sometimes in 3D) from Milan’s La Scala, Berlin’s Philarmoniker, Moscow’s Bolshoi Ballet, Vienna’s Staatsoper di Vienna, Turin’s Teatro Regio, the New York Philarmonic and the Royal Opera House.
Die-hard opera fans may object that bringing a performance to the big screen means distortimg (or depreciating) the show and the music itself.
Yet, it is precisely through large-scale actions like this - along with highly professional performances, direction skills, sound quality and equipment – that classical music might become more attractive and up-to-date in a growingly rich and diverse cultural market.
Links
http://www.risingalternative.com/index.html




