It's the Metropolitan Opera! - broadcast live in HD in a theater near you! Three years ago the Met Opera started broadcasting the Saturday matinee performances to select movie theaters - for a ticket price of around $20.00 a seat. Saturday, Dave and Connie treated us to see the performance of Madame Butterfly and I only wished we would have made this a tradition sooner! Not only was the talent incredible (wouldn't expect anything different coming from the Met) but visually, this performance was stunning. It would take me too long to describe all of the different elements that were used - from sliding Japanese screens to amazing puppetry - not to mention the elaborate costumes. This is truly the best of the best. Whether you are a fan of opera or not - I liked what my friend/sister-in-law Rachel said - going to this caliber of performance is like cleansing the palate. The 2008-2009 season is coming to a close - only two more operas to go - but there is always next year (Turandot and Carmen are in the line-up I think)! And we have to support these programs so the theaters will continue to show the broadcasts. I was told there was a time when the manager of the theater we were in wasn't so sure they would continue the program due to poor attendance. So now I want to help spread the word.
Here is the link. You can see the rest of the schedule and find a theater near you.
This isn't the first time I posted about an experience seeing Madame Butterfly. You can read about my childhood introduction to opera in this post. Similar to my childhood disillusionment - the one drawback to this broadcast opera was that the two leads were played by people in their late 40's-early 50's. We had to suspend our belief just a bit to believe that they were actually a fifteen year old Japanese girl and a young handsome American soldier. Someday - someday! - I will see this opera with the appropriate casting!
2 comments:
I have heard about the Mets campaign to recruit new Opera fans and try and make opera more accessible....this must be part of the effort. I think it would be very fun to see, so thanks for the heads up.
I have never seen Madame Butterfly. Sounds tempting.
Post a Comment