I’ve been watching quite a few DVDs of Metropolitan Opera performances. Of course, they’re amazing. Since the performances on DVD were recorded for broadcast and home video/dvd release, I’m sure that no expense was spared. Great staging, amazing costumes, and world class singers. The Met Opera orchestra is outstanding and James Levine has yet to disappoint.
Anyone been to a live opera at the Metropolitan Opera House? What did you think? How are the acoustics? Could you see the performance from your seat? How would a regular show compare to those which are broadcast on tv or released for home video?
I’ve been. I got the tickets off a friend of my father’s for free. It was right after 9/11 and his wife was scared of being in such a public place. I’m not really an opera fan, but I couldn’t pass up the tickets.
I saw ‘La Boheme’ and I thought the experience was fantastic. I was sat somewhere in the center, perhaps 20 or so rows back. I could see the whole stage and the surtitles clearly. The sound was fine; I’m not knowledgeable enough to comment on the quality.
As for how it compares with a televised version…well, you’re there. I wouldn’t watch opera on a dvd, much like I rarely watch baseball on television. For me, it’s all about the experience of being there that makes it so amazing.
The Met is amazing, but I don’t like how they do the subtitles of the libretto. The Met has individual little screens (or at least, they did when I went) at each seat where the English translation appears in orange light. The screen is mounted just in front of your seat. Unfortunately, that means you have to keep changing your focus from the stage back to the screen hundreds of times during an individual performance. At the end of the night, I was getting a headache.
At the New York Opera, they project the English translation in supertitles that appear just above the stage in huge letters. Thus, you are barely shifting your focus, since the words are right above the action on stage. I can see how that could be distracting for people who don’t need/want to read the translation, but I much preferred that system.
I was wondering if anyone here has attended the Met Opera HD simulcast that they do at local movie theaters. My movie theater does it, but I’ve never got around to attending. Is it worth attending just to eat popcorn at the opera?
It is a marvelous experience. I’ve been several times (I studied opera in high school and college so I went both on school trips and with my family, and also I used to work at Lincoln Center so had easy access) and it’s just … well, magical is not too airy-fairy a word for it. I’ve seen Rigoletto, La Boheme, Carmen, Otello, Tosca, Il Trittico and Don Giovanni; I think I also saw Tales of Hoffman, but now I can’t remember if that was at the Met or the NYCO.
The view varied, of course, depending on where I sat, but even when I was in the nosebleed seats during the school trips, we were able to see and hear everything. The earliest trips didn’t have the subtitles, but the later ones did. I like that they’re in the seats and you can ignore them if you want. Acoustics are fabulous – way better than Avery Fisher Hall (where the NY Philharmonic plays) – and IMO rivals only Carnegie Hall for clarity.
Going there at night, especially during the Christmas season, is an absolute treat and even when I worked at LC I never lost my sense of awe at the sheer electricity in the air. The grand entrance with Chagall’s huge-ass murals, the red carpeting, chandeliers, buzzing audience members looking lovely (if it’s not a matinee).
Y’know, one of the best depictions of attending a Met performance is in Moonstruck. Ooh! Just checked and the scenes are YouTube. Starts at 1:42 and then the real thrilling stuff at 3:54. vintageloveletter, you’ll enjoy this – it’s La Boheme! Which, btw, is one of my top two recommendations for someone’s first opera. (The first is Carmen.)
When I lived in NYC, I had a season subscription to the Met for many years. If the weather was nice I used to walk there from my apartment. It’s an unparalleled experience, possibly equaled only by the Garnier Opera House in Paris. Of course it depends who the divas are in any given performance. Yeah, that clip from *Moonstruck *brings it all back, especially the excitement when the chandeliers (a gift from Austria) dim and retract. There are some bad seats though, where you can only see the front of the stage. But the acoustics are great, and the orchestra is the best anywhere.
My favorite memory: the night they brought Hildegard Behrens back, to sing Brunhilde in Die Walküre . . . to replace a soprano who was having voice problems in Act I. Unforgettable. It was my bf’s birthday present to me; otherwise I would have missed it.
Going to the Met is, as another poster said, magical.
If you have not been to one of the Met’s HD broadcasts, go. The experience is as if you had the best seat in the house. These broadcasts are incredible.
I’ve been, many times. I went for the first time, when I was in high school. Someone had given me tickets. I fell in love with opera that night. After that, I would buy standing room tickets (do they still have those)? Even all the way up in the back, the sound was great. I used to bring binoculars to see better.
I’ve seen so many operas there. I go whenever I can afford it (which isn’t often these days).
I’ve been to other opera houses, but the Met has a special place in my heart.
As to comparing to the simulcast broadcasts, or DVDs of performances, those are wonderful, but there’s nothing like being there.
For me, I think my most memorable night at the Met was a 1994 (I think) production of Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmelites, with Dawn Upshaw and Teresa Stratas. Kent Nagano conducting. Holy shit, Upshaw and Stratas together? Unforgettable.
I’m sure it’s playing in Phoenix. This past season (which is now over) it was playing in over 400 theatres nationwide. The information is available at the Met’s website.
For me, I think my most memorable night at the Met was a 1994 (I think) production of Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmelites, with Dawn Upshaw and Teresa Stratas. Kent Nagano conducting. Holy shit, Upshaw and Stratas together? Unforgettable.[/QUOTE]
I saw that production too! I was there on Friday March 4, 1994. Michelle De Young played Mother Jeannie, and Heidi Grant Murphy played Sister Constance.
I can’t remember the date. It might have been that night. And I had really, really good seats (a gift – my father has a subscription, and couldn’t use his tickets that night).
When I was in high school we went to a performance of La Boheme at the Met. We were way the hack up in the top section, but the view and the acoustics were great. Back then, nobody tried to give you simulcast lyrics or projected lyrics, but I had a libretto I could follow.
The seats were unbelievably cheap – $1.50. I have no idea what they go for these days.
My wife went last time she was in New York. She said it was wonderful. One of the singers is a friend of her sister’s family. As a result, she got to go backstage, and got Renee Fleming’s and Ramon Vargas’s autograph(!)
I’ve got to get there myself one of these days. Houston has a fine opera, but it’s still the provinces.
Which, btw, is one of my top two recommendations for someone’s first opera. (The first is Carmen.)