Met Opera to Dartmouth
By Michael C. Russell | Monday, April 21, 2008
One would find it hard to criticize the range of options the leaders of the Hopkins Center bring to Dartmouth; their offerings cover everything from plays written by female prisoners incarcerated in New Hampshire to Tibetan dance troupes. However, one of their most exhilarating offers in recent times has been to participate in the Metropolitan Opera’s Live in High-Definition series, which aims to bring world-class opera to patrons around the globe.
Inspired by David Bowie’s live concert that was simulcast to theaters across Europe, the Met decided to attempt a similar experiment with opera. A technological impossibility a decade ago, a live performance of an opera in New York, captured by 10 high-definition cameras, can now be transmitted—simultaneously—to hundreds of HD equipped theaters, including the Hop. The Met provides a rare opportunity for people who would otherwise not have a chance to see opera of any quality, far less one by one of the world’s premier production companies, and in a t-shirt and jeans no less.
Having never seen an opera, live or otherwise, the allure of seeing a real Met Opera proved too much and I purchased a ticket to see “La Bohème,” the Met’s most performed opera and a favorite of American audiences. For such an intimidating thing as opera, I judged there must be safety in numbers. Ensconced in the familiar setting of Loew Auditorium, I settled in for the three hour performance playing to a sold-out crowd in Hanover. Later I found out that practically every one of the eight performances had sold out, not just in Hanover, but also at a hundred other theaters in the States.
I will spare you judgment of the opera or the performances within it, other than to say they were pleasantly surprising. The first half was a light hearted affair that drew chuckles and amazed at least this uninitiated with the period costumes and set pieces. This did little to prepare me for the eventual and inevitable tragic ending and the accompanying raw emotional singing that captivated the rapt theatre audience. Puccini’s opera—or Franco Zeffirelli’s, as some have said more aptly describes it—certainly covers an enormous breadth of the human experience, and with as wealthy an organization as the Met to finance its production,the presentation does it true justice.
Even more impressive, perhaps, than just seeing the show itself is that the 10 cameras allow unique behind-the-scenes look of the opera while it’s in progress, showing the men and women “behind the magic”, as it were. The intermission time is used as well, with interviews of the divas and the conductor, who one is amazed to see are surprisingly calm, considering the intensity of their performance and the exhaustion that must accompany it. Having never seen live opera, I cannot speculate on how much this changes the experience or interrupts one’s absorption in the opera, but it does provide a full, slightly educational, experience on opera and how it is done.
At a cost of nearly a million dollars per show, this quality does not come cheap, though it does for the viewer who pays a sixth of the price of the live cheap seats. Fortunately, it seems that the Met has touched a nerve and has reached hundreds of thousands of viewers through its HD Live series, including hundreds of New York City public school students to whon the Met has given free access. n
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