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A Night at the Opera

High-definition Met broadcasts turn Žižkov into Manhattan

By Steffen Silvis
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
December 26th, 2007 issue

Photo courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera New York
The "new Callas" with new technology. Anna Netrebko in Kino Aero's success.
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Photo courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera New York
The Metropolitan Opera HD Live At Kino Aero Next broadcasts: Humperdinck's Hansal und Gretel, Jan. 1 Verdi's Macbeth, Jan. 12 Puccini's Manon Lescaut, Feb. 16
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There was something momentarily unreal about entering Kino Aero’s auditorium to take a seat for the Metropolitan Opera’s first broadcast to Prague, while simultaneously seeing New Yorkers on the screen hunting down their own seats at Lincoln Hall in real time. Where were we?
It should go without saying, that there’s little that the two houses share. However florid Aero’s late-Deco lighting fixtures are, the utilitarian carpeting covering the cinema’s institutional-grey lino is a dead giveaway that we’re not in one of the opera world’s greatest bastions. And yet similar bouts of dislocation continually erupted throughout last Saturday’s live viewing of the Met’s production of Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, when Boho Žižkov became a satellite of the Upper West Side.
Many members of the Aero audience were dressed as if it were an opening night at Národní divadlo, and as the orchestra’s strings signalled the final tuning before conductor Plácido Domingo made his entrance into that far away pit in New York, Aero’s house fell as expectantly quiet as the Met’s.
Perhaps the most confusing part of this shared experience was knowing whether it was acceptable to applaud performers confined to a screen, particularly after two stunning arias from star soprano Anna Netrebko, which elicited spontaneous, if nervous, response. Time will, no doubt, sort out such questions of etiquette. For now, this first step into Prague taking part in the Met’s live broadcasts was a great success.
It was only last year that the Met’s general manager, Peter Gelb, decided to experiment with high definition broadcasting to selected cinemas, initiating the scheme with Julie Taymor’s production of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. The response was greater than the Met could have hoped, with cinemas in Los Angeles, Chicago and London effortlessly selling out.
Now there are 343 cinemas in America (including many university campuses) receiving the transmissions, while the international audience, in an additional 400 cinemas, sit throughout Europe, Australia and Asia.
The broadcasts are all of Saturday matinee performances to mesh with the many time zones. Perhaps the greatest sign of the Met’s success is that some of its chief rivals, such as Covent Garden and La Scala, are now thinking of starting their own series.
The most impressive aspect of these broadcasts is that they are cinematic. Multiple cameras shoot the performances, so there’s no statical, “stagey” feel to them. There is, however, something of the early days of live television about the broadcasts, with the odd, inadvertent cut to a performer’s hand or to the rafters. But for the most part, the camerawork is fluid, even offering a few overhead shots from what must be the stagehands’ catwalks.
An added feature this year, though the Met might want to reconsider it, is shooting the set-ups backstage between scenes and acts.Though some may thrill to seeing their favorite singers engaging in vocal warm-ups and throat clearings in the wings, it does dampen the magic a tad.
An invited look backstage during the shared interval was also a bit of a disaster, with the Met having dragooned American soprano Renée Fleming into playing tour guide, something the girlishly gushing Fleming seemed ill at ease with. Better to grab a glass of wine at Aero’s tiny crush bar than to encourage Fleming in her day job.
Still, it was the calibre of Guy Joosten’s production of Roméo et Juliette that helped make this new addition to Prague’s cultural scene welcome.
First, it gave a Czech audience the chance to see Netrebko, whom critics are tagging as the new Callas. It’s true that there is some similar vocal techniques, and, like Callas, Netrebko is thoroughly a creature of the boards.
As Romeo, Roberto Alagna certainly found more favor with the New York and Prague audience than from the punters at La Scala, where last year he stormed off the stage after being booed in Aida. Alagna was in much better voice here, and he and Netrebko made an excellent match.
The second broadcast comes Wednesday with Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel, which, for trivia collectors, was actually the Met’s choice for its first live radio broadcast in 1931 — many technological centuries ago.

Steffen Silvis can be reached at ssilvis@praguepost.com


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