Opera goes to the movies
Posted: Friday 7 Nov 2008, under category Talking Points
Popcorn anyone? A scene from the Metropolitan Opera's Romeo et Juliette released in cinemas.
Have you ever been to the opera? It can be beautiful, romantic, exciting and... expensive. Here in Milan for a couple to go to La Scala with even just decent seats will run them around 200 Euros - if they can even manage to get tickets.
In 2007 the Metropolitan Opera of New York, perhaps the world's leading operatic theater, launched its Met Opera at the Movies Series. They showed Met performances in high-definition in cinemas throughout the U.S. and Canada. The project is the brainchild of the new general manager Peter Gelb, who has become known for his commitment for bringing Met opera to new audiences. The opera at the movies project was an enormous success, and the San Francisco and the Glyndebourne Opera were quick to follow the Met's example, and seems that other European theaters will as well, including La Scala.
The idea of showing opera in the cinema seems to me very natural. It does not represent a big cost for theaters, which often record their more prominent productions for DVD anyways, and gives them the possibility to widen their audience. It gives people curious about opera a chance to see it cheaply, and gives opera fans a chance to see performances even if they cannot afford Met prices, or they don't live anywhere near New York. The high-definition broadcasts, while not the same as experiencing the real thing, are of a truly exceptional quality, you can view a sample here.
I think that in addition to being an opportunity for theaters, this is also opportunity for cinemas to offer a new product to their public. As more and more opera companies are releasing performances theatrically, I would love to have a cinema in my city which featured a kind of weekly "night at the opera," showing different opera performances from around the world. I think such a service could attract a very loyal following in big cities, both among opera fans who want a way to see new performances in state-of-the-art sound, and people who just want to give opera a try. The success of showing opera at the movies demonstrates that opera is not as highbrow as people might believe; and though many people may not be willing to shell out a few hundred bucks for tickets and get all dressed up to go the opera, they may very well be interested in going to the opera at their local cinema.
Opera at the cinema is one of many successful examples repackaging and extending a product with a limited audience and making it available to a new audience. There are surely many other possibilities along similar lines.
