Monday, April 07, 2008
Being an “opera purist” I have always advocated seeing an opera in an opera house to truly experience the art form’s power. How else can you really understand how a singer uses volume, how the voice blends with the orchestra by any other means than being in the balcony and “feeling” that voice project up to you. And, to be honest, they have never truly replicated the sound of the human voice and all its nuances. I remember hearing my first pianissimo (a “soft” tone, yet projected and powered) it sent chills up my spine.
So when the Metropolitan opera introduced live HD telecasts into movie theaters last season I wondered what the point was. We can all purchase recordings and DVDs for a similar price and to experience it live, why not go to the opera itself? But as friends and family who have gone to these telecasts raved, on Saturday Mary and I decided to what all the hype was about. Saturday was La Boheme, an opera I happen to know every note of by heart, and the production was one of Zeferelli’s most famous.
The opera opens with Renee Fleming, today’s reigning diva, sitting on the side of the sets, introducing the opera. She then walks to the flies of the stage by the prompter who cues the maestro. The next shot is in the green room and the cameras follow him out into the pit. The curtain goes up and the opera begins.
It was marvelous, the camera work was world-class and the production held up despite the close ups (usually). The backstage interviews with the singers, stagehands, chorus, explaining what this opera means, and how they pull it off, brought this esoteric art form down to earth.
The sound, of course, was nothing like it was live; a bit unbalanced. Well, you can’t have everything. This is, in some ways, a new art form that works incredibly well. Seeing as now this is being broadcast almost everywhere in the US and around the world, I think we can say that the world agrees.
So when the Metropolitan opera introduced live HD telecasts into movie theaters last season I wondered what the point was. We can all purchase recordings and DVDs for a similar price and to experience it live, why not go to the opera itself? But as friends and family who have gone to these telecasts raved, on Saturday Mary and I decided to what all the hype was about. Saturday was La Boheme, an opera I happen to know every note of by heart, and the production was one of Zeferelli’s most famous.
The opera opens with Renee Fleming, today’s reigning diva, sitting on the side of the sets, introducing the opera. She then walks to the flies of the stage by the prompter who cues the maestro. The next shot is in the green room and the cameras follow him out into the pit. The curtain goes up and the opera begins.
It was marvelous, the camera work was world-class and the production held up despite the close ups (usually). The backstage interviews with the singers, stagehands, chorus, explaining what this opera means, and how they pull it off, brought this esoteric art form down to earth.
The sound, of course, was nothing like it was live; a bit unbalanced. Well, you can’t have everything. This is, in some ways, a new art form that works incredibly well. Seeing as now this is being broadcast almost everywhere in the US and around the world, I think we can say that the world agrees.
# posted by otas : 7:41 AM
