15.03.08

Petah Grimes

in music

I’ve been to Revere a handful of times and today it was to see an opera.

This is the second year of the New York Metropolitan Opera’s HD simulcast project, in which live performances are beamed to hundreds of movie theaters running digital projection.  This one was Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes. I don’t know squat about opera but it was kind of awesome, both from a logistical standpoint and because it annoys a certain strain of opera purist.

The local Boston showing was sold out so instead we got Clive to drive us to Showcase Cinemas.  There were some expected culture clashes (”IS THIS COFFEE STARBUCKS?”), and the signal glitched out for about 30 seconds, but overall it went smoothly.  In addition to the performance itself the Met ran additional programming on Britten and the opera’s background, and the live cameras moved freely around backstage before the program and between acts. There was something especially charming about interviewing the sweaty performers who’d just come off stage (”Hi mom!”).  The bonus material was hosted by French soprano Natalie Dessay, who had more enthusiasm (”Now let us enjoy Britten’s sad and ‘orrible opera!”) than skill (”So you are Scottish, and Britten was British…”). Not everybody can be good at everything.

As much as I liked this, I am not disappointed to be missing next week’s five and a half hour simulcast of Tristan. For one thing, the last opera I saw was also in German. The next one will be in Sanskrit.

posted by liza
comments: RSS 2.0
comment or trackback

5 Comments »

  1. Laurence Glavin said,

    March 16, 2008 @ 10:14 am

    Congratulations on going to see an opera that is not necessarily on the “approved” list. Many people have closed their minds about 20th Century opera, not realizing there are many masterpieces among them, “Peter Grimes” included. A little over a year ago, ny girl friend went to a Met performance and brought back a copy of the booklet handed out to patrons before the opera started; the booklet included an article about a Yale University drama professor who takes his students to The Met once a year to see one of the operas in the repertoire that have strong story lines and require singing actors (that year, the choice was Beethoven’s “Fidelio”). “Peter Grimes” also fills the bill it seems to me. Now I will be at the Randolph Cinema for “Tristan” from beginning to end because I’m an opera nut. Remember the invitation from Natalie Dessay to attend a LIVE operatic perrformance eithr in NYC, or your own local opera company? The Boston Lyric Opra is offering the very easy-to-take “L’Elisir d’Amore” right now and Opera Boston is doing a Verdi barnburner “Ernani” in the spring (if spring ever comes). So you have two opportunities to experience live staged opera (the Boston Symphony’s traversal of Berlioz’ “Les Troyens might be too much for you right now.)

  2. liza said,

    March 16, 2008 @ 11:27 am

    Thanks for the pointers! Fortunately (?) my boyfriend is also an opera nut, so this will not be my last live or HD performance.

  3. Gesamtkunstwerk said,

    March 16, 2008 @ 7:20 pm

    This Tuesday I am seeing the Tristan performance that is being taped for the simulcast. Well, Tuesday is when I’m arriving. I’ll be done with it sometime early on Wednesday.

    Peter Grimes hopefully next week.

  4. liza said,

    March 16, 2008 @ 7:38 pm

    It’s not being “taped” for anything. It’s a “simulcast.” Learn American, the language spoken by our Lord.

  5. Simulcast this said,

    March 17, 2008 @ 6:02 pm

    Of course it’s being taped, don’t be ridiculous. (And I’m sure there’s a delay, just in case the soprano needs to go and puke again in the middle of the second act like it happened last week.)

    In German we have a word for this. Oh, wait, no, it’s English: bite me.

RSS feed for comments on this post · TrackBack URI

Leave a Comment