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Dreaming grand dreams

The Met makes its high-definition debut in Prague
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By Frank Kuznik
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
December 12th, 2007 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
Soprano Anna Netrebko (shown on the cover) and tenor Roberto Alagna star in the season's high-flying opener.
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Roméo et Juliette

Live Metropolitan Opera broadcast
When: Saturday, Dec. 15, at 7:00
Where: Kino Aero (Biskupcova 31, Prague 3)
Tickets: 300 Kč, sold out at press time (some unclaimed reservations may still be available at the Aero or Světozor box offices)
For a complete schedule and
reservations (in Czech), see
www.metinhd.cz

In February of this year, Martin Cikánek, a young Czech arts manager currently working as a fundraiser for the Prague Symphony Orchestra, was at an Opera Europa conference in Paris. He was coming off a fellowship at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and not feeling good about returning to Europe, where the conference seemed a depressing reminder that opera is a dying art form.
Then he heard a presentation by Peter Gelb, general manager of the New York Metropolitan Opera, pitching the high-definition broadcasts of Met productions that were inaugurated in the United States last year. Transmissions of six live Met performances were beamed to nearly 200 theaters, and were a financial and critical success, attracting more than 300,000 viewers.
“Gelb wants to bring opera to as many people as possible,” Cikánek says. “After I heard him, I thought, I will do this in the Czech Republic.”
Cikánek’s ambitious undertaking becomes a reality this weekend, when the first of the new season’s Met broadcasts, Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, debuts at the Aero cinema. There will be seven additional broadcasts over the next four months, offering local opera fans an unprecedented opportunity to see world-caliber productions and singers, especially welcome in what has been a lackluster opera season in Prague.
In a country notorious for bureaucratic red tape, securing the broadcasts turned out to be easier than Cikánek expected. The Met was more than willing, provided that certain technical standards (like projection and sound quality) were met and the venue had a minimum of 250 seats. And managers at one of the first theaters that Cikánek talked to here, Aero, readily agreed to the requirements.
“I thought the search would take much longer,” Cikánek says. “But I think the best ideas are simple.”
Gelb has made this one as simple as possible, offering the broadcasts on a revenue-sharing basis — which is to say, there’s no fee for the transmissions, and the Met splits the take with the house. Ticket prices are keyed to local cinema ticket prices, to keep the economics within popular reach. And, best of all for Prague audiences, the broadcasts are of live Saturday afternoon performances, which means they’ll all be shown in prime time here.
The only concern was whether audiences would turn out, which Cikánek says was never a concern in his mind. “The opera houses in Prague consistently fill 1,000 seats,” he says. “We’re talking 330 seats at Aero.”
His confidence has already been rewarded, with Roméo et Juliette sold out and ticket sales running strong for the coming broadcasts. “The Aero guys are very surprised that people are willing to buy a cinema ticket for an April show in November,” Cikánek notes.
But it’s no surprise to opera fans, with a lineup that includes the following:
Jan. 12: A new production of Verdi’s Macbeth with James Levine conducting and Georgian baritone Lado Ataneli in the title role;
March 15: Tony award-winning director John Doyle (Sweeney Todd) makes his Met debut with Peter Grimes, Benjamin Britten’s haunting study of mob psychology in a small village;
March 22: James Levine will be at the podium for Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, with Deborah Voigt and Ben Heppner in the title roles;
April 5: Franco Zeffirelli’s production of La Bohéme, with Angela Gheorghiu singing Mimi and Ramón Vargas as her lover, Rodolfo;
April 26: The production of Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment that drew rave reviews in Covent Garden last year, with dazzling coloratura soprano Natalie Dessay singing Marie.
Opera broadcasts in the past have been hampered by static presentation, with typically one long shot of the entire stage and occasional close-ups of the singers. That’s not the case with the Met productions, which employ 14 cameras and cinematic presentation. And, if any more incentive is needed, the broadcasts here will all have English-language subtitles, just like in the States.
This is a Christmas gift that will keep on giving, but check the calendar and buy your tickets now. If the early response is any indication, those 330 seats are going to be like gold in the coming year.

Frank Kuznik can be reached at fkuznik@praguepost.com


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