KUL-CHA ALERT
At the behest of my insistent girlfriend, I bit the bullet this past weekend and went to go see one of those live-via-satellite HD movie theatre transmissions of the Metropolitan Opera, the Franco Zeffirelli production of Turandot, to be exact. Wasn’t exactly sure what to expect — I mean, I love opera and used to go to the Met every chance I could get (SRO seats, baybee) when I used to live in NYC — but the idea of seeing it in a movie theatre seemed so… middlebrow? Luckily, there wasn’t an NPR totebag in sight and it turned out to be a very enjoyable experience. The average age of the crowd was probably 60 (most of them dressed to the nines, even though it was 10AM on a Saturday morning, which made me feel very self-conscious in my “rush out of bed overtired and hungover” Lebowski-wear) and it turned out to be the first time in a long while where I was able to go to a movie theatre and not be disturbed by anyone talking or texting. No screaming babies or ringing celphones, either. And libations were available, to boot (though I was in no condition to partake, the “hair of the dog” school of recovery notwithstanding).
The production, though gaudily over-the-top (Zeffirelli, natch), was quite lovely. The one big caveat: considering the fact that the opera was being broadcast on a 60 ft. screen and not on PBS, it would have been nice to have some full-proscenium longshots that lasted more than a few seconds. The broadcasts are apparently filmed with an impressive array of robotic cameras so as not to disrupt the live performance, but the control booth director is way too cut and close-up happy, destroying any sense of composition or choreography of the bodies across the stage. There were also these weird Huell Howser-esque interviews with the production staff and cast members during the intermissions which sort of cheapened the whole experience. And the theatre apparently had some sort of server problem, which resulted in a lot of audio glitches and dropouts, often right in the middle of otherwise transfixing arias.
Quibbles aside, I’m hooked and am going to go to the “encore” rebroadcast of Aida tomorrow night. It’s worth checking out. Ticket and screening information for a theatre near you available here. Better hurry, they sell out quickly. Bring your opera cape.
