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December 1st, 2008
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Night at the opera

The Met broadcast season returns with an expanded lineup

By Frank Kuznik
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
October 8th, 2008 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
El?na Garanča in La Cenerentola
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Gerald Finley in Doctor Atomic
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Anna Netrebko in Lucia di Lammermoor
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Karita Mattila in Salome
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Cikánek is now negotiating with theaters in nine countries.
2008/2009 Metropolitan Opera Broadcast Schedule



Oct. 11 Richard Strauss Salome
Nov. 8 John Adams Doctor Atomic
Nov. 22 Hector Berlioz La Damnation de Faust
Dec. 20 Jules Massenet Thais
at 5:45
Jan. 10 Giacomo Puccini La Rondine
Jan. 24 Christoph Gluck Orfeo ed Euridice
Feb. 7 Gaetano Donizetti Lucia di Lammermoor
March 7 Giacomo Puccini Madama Butterfly
March 21 Vincezo Bellini La Sonnambula at 5:45
May 9 Gioacchino Rossini La Cenerentola at 6:15

All screenings are at Aero Cinema at 6:45 p.m. (unless otherwise noted). For reservations, call 608 330 088.
The New York Metropolitan Opera season is under way, which is great news for opera fans in Prague. It means that the Met’s live high-definition broadcasts are starting up again, and with a bang: This Saturday, Karita Mattila reprises her electrifying 2004 performance in the lead role of Strauss’s Salome, nudity and all.
The broadcast season, which has expanded from eight to 10 operas this year, includes Doctor Atomic, John Adams’s gripping look at the creation of the atomic bomb; Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust, directed by the internationally renowned Robert Lepage; Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, with choreography by Mark Morris; superstar soprano Anna Netrebko in the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor, opposite Rolando Villazón; and the sensational Latvian mezzo-soprano El?na Garanča in Rossini’s La Cenerentola.
For all that, the most interesting thing about the new season (so far, anyway) is talking to Martin Cikánek, the young arts impresario responsible for bringing the Met broadcasts to Prague. A year ago, Cikánek was fresh out of a fellowship at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., brimming with ideas and enthusiasm, and facing the usual coterie of nay-sayers insisting that the concept wouldn’t fly in Prague.
As it turned out, the concept did more than fly. Seven of the eight screenings at Aero Cinema were sellouts. Cikánek added eight rebroadcasts and five encore performances from the previous season to the schedule. And, before the live season was over, a theater in Hradec Králové was also showing the broadcasts.
Interest in joining the program has grown so rapidly that when he’s asked how many Czech cities will be showing Met broadcasts this year, Cikánek has to stop and think.
“Eleven,” he finally says. “And we’re negotiating with two more.”
As the Met’s de facto rep in Central Europe, Cikánek has also signed up five cities in Poland, including Krakow and Warsaw, and a theater in Budapest, with more negotiations under way in Hungary. He’s also talking to theaters in Slovakia, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bulgaria and Romania. The biggest barrier to expansion at this point is the technical requirements, which call for a high-definition projector.
“The broadcasts are designed for digital cinemas,” Cikánek notes. “Ninety-nine percent of the cinemas in the Czech Republic are still showing 35mm.”
The success of the program in Central Europe reflects its growth worldwide, which has been equally spectacular. The first Met HD broadcast, The Magic Flute in late December 2006, was beamed to 56 American theaters. By May 2007, Puccini’s Il Trittico, the final broadcast of the season, was showing in more than 230 theaters worldwide. This season, the broadcasts will be seen in nearly 800 venues in the United States, Canada, Mexico, South America, Europe, Japan and Australia.
 The Los Angeles Times said of the series, “The Met’s experiment of merging film with live performances has created a new art form. … This venture may be the most significant development in opera since the supertitle.”
What accounts for the phenomenal appeal of Met broadcasts?  For Cikánek, the answer is simple.
“The product is really great,” he says with a shrug. “A lot of people said to me, ‘The Met’s a conservative house with old-fashioned productions.’ But people love it. The productions are lavish, with great sets and costumes. They have world-class singers and that amazing orchestra. You may disagree with what they’re doing aesthetically, but you have to respect the product.”
The Met product is also a good fit with Czech tastes, Cikánek believes.
“Some critics said to me we ought to show something from Germany, where the productions are more progressive,” he says. “But Czech opera audiences don’t want progressive. They like a conservative product.”
It’s not entirely fair to call the Met productions conservative. The staging may be traditional, but, with 14 cameras working for most of the broadcast performances and quick-cut direction that at times seems lifted from MTV, the screenings do a very effective job of marrying the drama and dignity of opera with the style and sparkle of modern filmmaking. And the close-ups! It’s overwhelming, to say the least, sitting before a face the size of a house belting out a Wagner or Verdi aria.
As just one measure of how popular the Met program has become in Prague, Cikánek cites presales of this year’s series. Before it was officially announced, he sent out the schedule and a priority booking offer to a list of e-mail subscribers he compiled last year. “We sold out 45 percent of the season with just that one e-mail,” he says.
One of the more interesting sidelights of last year’s broadcasts was watching the audience, many of whom came to the inaugural broadcast, Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, dressed as if they were attending a live performance at the National Theater or State Opera. Fashion devolved over the season to a mix of formal and street wear, but the spirit was catching; in Hradec Králové, the theater rolled out a red carpet and had hostesses in evening gowns.
“It’s much more relaxed at Aero,” Cikánek notes. “But I like the mix of different social groups. And it shows that opera’s not only for snobs.”
For years, people in the performing arts business have been wringing their hands over the supposed death of opera. Theater screenings may or may not save it. But, for now, they are absolutely the freshest and most accessible way to experience one of the world’s great art forms.

Frank Kuznik can be reached at fkuznik@praguepost.com


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