Opera fans get the best seat in the house with Met: Live in HD

Jo Kerrigan reveals why the pioneering Met: Live in HD has become a global phenomenon since it began back in 2006 and set a template for a whole new way of experiencing live entertainment. 

MORE than 3.5 million tickets were sold during the 2013-14 season for Met; Live in HD and it can now be seen in more than 1,600 venues in 54 countries.

Experiencing live opera at the Met is a lifetime’s dream for many, says Julie Borchard-Young, director of Worldwide HD at the iconic New York theatre, and it seemed the sensible solution to use the latest technology to make its performances available to a wider public.

“We’re an opera company after all, and our job is to bring our productions to audiences who want to see them. It’s exciting for the cinemas too because it gives them a whole new lease of life. Anybody can show movies — but live opera, as it happens? That’s something else.”

And therein lies the point. You see exactly what is being happening onstage right at that moment, whether it’s meant to or not. That’s what live theatre is all about, and you’re part of the Met audience.They have put together a spectacular programme for this season, including some of the all-time greats and a few rarely-performed ones, as well as some lighter operettas to charm everyone.

The season kicks off this Saturday, with superstar soprano Anna Netrebko in Verdi’s Macbeth. The ever-popular Carmen will be performed on November 1, while Saturday, December 13 will be a big night for all Wagner fans as the mighty Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg is shown in all its six-hour magnificence.

What better way to start the New Year than with Léhar’s lovely Viennese operetta, The Merry Widow on January 17, starring the incomparable Renée Fleming? Well, perhaps by following it up with the all-too-rarely seen Les Contes d’Hoffmann on January 31, with the legendary Thomas Hampson in Offenbach’s Parisian masterpiece. February 14 brings a Valentine double bill of Tchaikovsky’s romantic tragedy Iolanta (again starring Anna Netrebko) paired with Bartok’s spine-chilling Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, both under the great Russian conductor Valery Gergiev. That is followed by two of today’s biggest stars, Juan Diago Flórez and Joyce Di Donato, in Rossini’s La Donna del Lago on March 14. And finally, to finish the season off superbly on April 25, one of the most popular of all double-bills: Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana, and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci.

Niall Doyle, executive director of Classical Arts Ireland, who organise the Irish screenings, is excited about this year’s programme. “It’s marvellous that opera fans can get to see the finest productions from one of the world’s great theatres, without having to travel transatlantic and pay huge prices for their tickets. What’s more, you get the best seat in the house, and have backstage access too, to see the performers between acts. You couldn’t do that even if you did get to New York.”

See www.classicalartsireland.com for venues