Met announces plan to simulcast opera to millions in U.S., Canada and Europe

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This article was published 07/09/2006 (7019 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

NEW YORK (AP) – The Metropolitan Opera is vastly expanding its broadcast presence, transmitting six live performances to movie theatres in North America and Europe this season and broadcasting more than 100 live performances over the Internet or on digital radio.

As part of the company’s groundbreaking attempt to expand its audience, it announced Wednesday that the six video broadcasts will be followed by telecasts on PBS following 30-day windows. DVD and CD releases could follow. The Met also will make many of its historical broadcasts available on the Internet, some for free but most for a fee.

“We’re already an aging art form and we now have to make sure we are undertaking initiatives like this that will create audience development, audience education and connect the Met generally with its local, national and global fan base in a way that has not been possible previously,” said Peter Gelb, who took over from Joseph Volpe as the Met’s general manager on Aug. 1.

Gelb’s moves are part of his shakeup at the Met, where 77 per cent of available tickets were sold last season, down from 93 per cent in’99-2000.

The high-definition satellite simulcasts to hundreds of movie theatres will begin Dec. 30 with the English-language adaptation of Julie Taymor’s production of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute,” under the baton of Music Director James Levine.

Other productions scheduled for simulcast are Bellini’s “I Puritani” starring soprano Anna Netrebko (Jan. 6); the world premiere production of Tan Dun’s “The First Emperor,” with Placido Domingo in the title role (Jan.-); Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin” starring Renee Fleming and Dmitri Hvorostovsky and conducted by Valery Gergiev (Feb. 24); a new production of Rossini’s “Il Barbiere di Siviglia” with Juan Diego Florez and Diana Damrau (March 24); and the new production of Puccini’s “Il Trittico,” conducted by Levine and directed by Jack O’Brien (April 28).

Gelb said the likely ticket price in the United States would be $16-$18.

In order to launch these initiatives, Gelb and Volpe negotiated agreements with the American Guild of Musical Artists, which represents the singers, chorus and ballet; Local 802 of the Associated Musicians of Greater New York; and Local One of the Theatrical Stage Employees Union.

In the past, the Met paid an upfront fee for each broadcast plus additional money for each airing. Under the new agreements, Gelb said there will be a small upfront payment and a continuation of the fee paid for the Saturday radio broadcasts that start each December and run until the spring. In exchange, the Met will have unlimited use of the electronic product and will share any profits.

Since 2001, just two Met telecasts have aired on PBS and three productions that had been video recorded were not even aired. Gelb said the agreement would cut the cost of televising an opera, which had been more than US$1 million, by more than 50 per cent.

Even Alan Gordon, AGMA’s executive director, called the prior costs “impossibly prohibitive.”

“There was no money coming in from media. To give up an illusory contract that had a lot of money doesn’t mean anything if nobody’s making any money,” he said. “Peter Gelb I guess has a vision that you have to expand the audience base any way you can to keep the Met vibrant. His ideas about exploitation of media are the centrepiece of his plan. His pitch to the unions was, ‘It’s the only way to survive,’ and our members bought into that.”

Under the agreements with the unions, the Met’s archive of 1,500 radio broadcasts from the past 75 years will become available, some for free on its website but most through RealNetworks’ Rhapsody online service. About 500 archived broadcasts will begin this season, when streaming of current productions is slated to start.

“The unions have put the Met in position to really be in control of the content,” Gelb said. “They are gambling on us, that we are going to be able to use this power to create opportunities that are going to improve the box-office position and the fundraising, and that will make the Met a more vibrant and healthier institution.”

CineMedia, owned by AMC Entertainment Inc., Cinemark USA Inc. and Regal Entertainment Group, will present the U.S. theatre telecasts, with Cineplex Entertainment airing them in Canada and Odeon/UCI in Britain, where the price will be about 12 pounds ($23 US).

The Met plans to make deals with other companies for distribution of digital downloads, video on demand, digital radio, instant CDs and even ring tones. The company’s Saturday matinee radio broadcasts will continue, from Dec. 9 to May 5, and the audience will be targeted for promotion of the simulcasts.

“Opera fans are as fanatical about opera as baseball fans are about baseball,” Gelb said. “We want to make the Met as available electronically to its followers as the Yankees are to theirs.”

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On the Net:

http://www.metopera.org