I Attended the Met Opera...

and was home in 15 minutes.


As a birthday gift, RGBisMe got us tickets to view yesterday's simulcast of the Metropolitan Opera's production of Madame Butterfly. I have reflected long and hard on what it means to attend a simulcast production and my reasons for this blog are twofold. My main thought are on how it effects those who attend the local simulcast production (the audience) and how does it effect those who are performing what is being broadcast (the opera).

I had mixed feelings even before attending. I don't really know if a simulcast is something that is good for the life of opera in general yet I had never attended one before at the Met or otherwise. The high definition simulcast of Madame Butterfly at our local State Theater was allowing me to experience, on a lesser level, my very first opera. I wondered if the audience would approach the production like they were going to the movies or if they were attending the opera.

There were a real mix of attendees at the State Theater yesterday. I sat beside a family with 2 younger boys who had never attended an opera before. Their father encouraged the one boy to read through the program prior to the beginning of the performance to get an idea of what the story was because Puccini's opera is in Italian. Some folks were dressed as though they were at the Met and others as though they were grabbing a burger at the Corner Room.

I was a bit nervous that the crowd did not quiet as the pre-production introduction began on the screen. A countdown of the final 5 minutes to curtain was interrupted by an onscreen backstage commentary. This came during the raising of those grand chandeliers which indicated the raising of the curtain or any prologue. The verbal chatter finally died off at the raising of the curtain and the audience was good as gold for the whole production.

I enjoyed the high definition filming of this production of Madame Butterfly as well as this particular staging of if. It incorporated the traditional Japanese puppetry style of Bunraku in some scenes, this included the shocking, amazing, and impeccable replacement of casting Cho-Cho-San's son.

During the production, there were a handful of times that the digital reception faltered. The sound of the orchestra and pristine voices cut out for 5 brief intervals. This seems minuscule except for one of them was just before the climax of the famous and heart wrenching aria Un bel dì. The audible negative reaction many members of the audience had (including my own) confirmed to me it was the equivalent of some one's cell phone going off. It shattered a fragile moment and ruined the feeling many of us get at the movies/ballet/theatrical productions; the transcendence of time and place was lost and we were back in State College.

The final curtain was a specific moment I had been curious about. Would the audience applaud? They did, in an awkward and lukewarm manner at first. The applause grew as they realized that although the performers were not hearing our appreciation that this was part of the complete experience of attending the opera. Even a few cheers were emitted for the opera stars as they took their bows on the screen.

As I stepped out onto the sidewalk on College Avenue, I found myself disoriented. I had forgotten where I was for a while. The production had convinced me that I was, if not in Nagasaki, in the Met Opera House. I then concluded that the impact was enough that if any other patrons were moved that perhaps they would hope to attend a live production and even eventually want to set foot in the Met. I don't like the idea that simulcast productions might be taking away from the ticket revenues that The Met Opera would have gotten that day but if it builds an audience for the future it might be worth it.

This is a bleak economic time for this country. Many people regularly see the arts as superfluous even when jobs and money are more easily had and ticket price is of little consequence. Even financially solid companies like New York City Ballet are cutting tours, dancers and staff to save money. This week, Ravenboy's union met and voted to take a cut in their pensions and vacation pay in lue of cutting dancers at American Ballet Theatre.

Hopefully simulcast productions will make aware and awaken some of the people who are used to staying in their own towns and living rooms. Life without the arts is hellish.