Metropolitan Opera Live in HD (also known as The Met: Live in HD) is a series of live opera performances transmitted in high-definition video via satellite from the Metropolitan Opera in New York City to select venues, primarily movie theaters, in the United States and other parts of the world. The first transmission was of a condensed English-language version of Mozart's The Magic Flute on December 30, 2006. Many of the video recordings are later rebroadcast via public television as part of the Great Performances at the Met series, and most are made available for streaming at Met Opera on Demand, a collection which also includes earlier SD video and analog telecasts and audio recordings from Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts.
History To transmit the series via satellite simulcast in the US and Canada, the Met partnered with Fathom Events. The series is broadcast to AMC Theatres, Cinemark, Cineplex Entertainment, Regal Entertainment Group (Regal Cinemas, United Artists and Edwards), Goodrich, Kerasotes, Marcus and National Amusements movie theaters, as well as a series of independent venues such as arts centers and college campuses. Its aims include building a larger audience for the Met and garnering excitement for arts at a local level.
The original idea for presenting operas in this way came from the new incoming general manager of the Met, Peter Gelb in late 2006. Gelb brought in veteran TV director Gary Halvorson to oversee the series. Exhibiting the Met's performances in digital movie theaters is in line with other audience-expanding efforts by the Met such as radio broadcasts on Sirius Radio, iPod downloads, live streaming video on the Met website, and free opening night screenings in Times Square and at Lincoln Center. The Met is also sponsoring free HD broadcasts into selected New York City public schools."Metropolitan Opera to Offer Hi-Def Simulcasts in NYC Public Schools" Playbill.com, December 12, 2007
Tom Galley, chief operations and technology officer of National CineMedia, described the experience by saying:
In the US, the series was broadcast in both high definition and regular TV as part of the Public Broadcasting Service's Great Performances series under the title Great Performances at the Met. In addition, selected performances were also made viewable online."Operas from The Met" ClassicalTV
International expansion The first season included seven theatres in Britain, two in Japan and one in Norway. After its successful launch, several other countries joined for the second season and 100 screens were added, selling an additional 20,000 tickets. These included cinemas in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain.
2008 saw the network expand even further to include more screens in the countries named above plus other countries such as Australia, Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Argentina (Buenos Aires and Mar del Plata), and Poland, as well as the territory of Puerto Rico.
Reaction in the British press has been positive:
The author Peter Conrad praised Gelb's showmanship:
Production six Metropolitan Opera employees work full-time on Live in HD. About 40 people work on the technical aspects of each broadcast, with one comparing the scale of the logistics to the preshow coverage of the Emmy or Academy Awards. Host Renée Fleming volunteers her services. No same-day substitution of a major cast member for a Live in HD performance was necessary until January 2010, perhaps because of the appeal of performing for a worldwide audience and the opportunity to appear on the subsequent DVD of the broadcast.
Audience Movie and radio broadcast revenue increased for the Met from about $5 million in 2006, Live in HD's first year, to $22 million in 2008, with Live in HD contributing the bulk of the growth. For the 2009/10 season, the Met spent about $12 million in production and received about half of the $47 million box-office gross. After paying royalties to its cast and crew, the Met earned a $8 million profit. The Met's Live in HD revenue for the 2012/13 season was $34.5 million.
According to a 2008 study commissioned by Opera America, most Live in HD attendees were "moderate and frequent opera goers". About one in five, however, did not attend a live opera performance in the previous two years, with some being completely new to opera and attending because of curiosity about it. The majority claimed to equally enjoy broadcast and live opera, and more than half stated they would "very likely" attend an opera performance at the Met if visiting New York. A 2011 University of British Columbia thesis found that "Live in HD does not at present cannibalize the local live opera audience ... [but] There is no evidence that [it] generates more live opera attendance or brings new audiences into local opera houses".
A report outlines the economics of the Met's 2013–2014 season: Last season, 10 operas were transmitted via satellite into at least 2,000 theaters in 66 countries, including more than 800 U.S. theaters. Box office hit $60 million worldwide (average ticket prices were $23 last season), with theater owners splitting sales 50–50 with the Met (insiders say the split is more advantageous to the Met in North America) and Fathom taking a small percentage as well.Pamela McClintock, "Met Opera Standoff Threatens $60 Million Theater Business", The Hollywood Reporter (online), August 7, 2014 on hollywoodreporter.com
Vladica and Davis have utilised Q methodology to analyse audience reactions and judgments of entertainment value with respect to this series, and related cultural events transmitted to cinemas.
By the time the Met began planning for its tenth anniversary season (2015–2016), its Live in HD series had become a major source of income, bringing in $60 million in yearly revenue and $17 to $18 million in profit, 12% of the total for the company. It was being presented in 2,000 theatres in 70 countries and 11 time zones.
Seasons
2006–2007 Beginning on December 30, 2006, as part of the company's effort to build revenues and attract new audiences, the Met broadcast a series of six performances live via satellite into movie theaters."Tickets for Metropolitan Opera's High-Definition Movie Theater Simulcasts to Go on Sale 11/18" . Opera News Online, November 16, 2006. The series was carried in over 100 movie theaters across North America plus others in Britain, Japan and one in Norway."Mozart, Now Singing at a Theatre Near You" by Campbell Robertson, The New York Times, January 1, 2007 It included: Julie Taymor's production of Mozart's The Magic Flute,"Metropolitan Opera's First Simulcast of 2007–08 Breaks Attendance Records" Playbill.com, December 17, 2007. on December 30, 2006, in an abridged English version conducted by James Levine and starring Ying Huang as Pamina, Matthew Polenzani as Tamino, Jennifer Aylmer as Papagena, and Nathan Gunn as Papageno. Bellini's I puritani, on January 6, 2007, starring Anna Netrebko, Eric Cutler and Franco Vassallo in the roles of Elvira, Arturo and Riccardo, in the 1976 Sandro Sequi production conducted by Patrick Summers. The world premiere of Tan Dun's The First Emperor, on January 13, 2007, with Plácido Domingo in the title role of Emperor Qin in a production by Zhan Yimou and conducted by Dun himself. Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, on February 24, 2007, starring Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Renée Fleming and Ramón Vargas in the roles of Onegin, Tatiana and Lensky in Robert Carsen's simple but beautiful production conducted by Valery Gergiev. Rossini's The Barber of Seville, on March 24, 2007, in the new hit production by Bartlett Sher, with Peter Mattei, Joyce DiDonato and Juan Diego Flórez as Figaro, Rosina and Almaviva, and conducted by Maurizio Benini. Puccini's Il trittico, on April 28, 2007, in another new hit production, this time by Jack O'Brien and conducted by James Levine. Maria Guleghina, Salvatore Licitra and Juan Pons, in the roles of Giorgetta, Luigi and Michele, sang in Il tabarro, Barbara Frittoli starred in the title role of Suor Angelica, and Gianni Schicchi was played by Alessandro Corbelli with Olga Mykytenko and Massimo Giordano in the roles of Lauretta and Rinuccio. Stephanie Blythe starred in all three operas, singing the roles of Frugola, the Princess and Zita.
In addition, limited repeat showings of the operas were offered in most of the presenting cities. Within the US, digital sound for the performances was provided by Sirius Satellite Radio.
These movie transmissions were successful at the box office as well as having received wide and generally favorable press coverage.Elizabeth Fitzsimmons, "Movie theaters offer opera live from the Met" , San Diego Union-Tribune, December 31, 2006 The Met reports that 91% of available seats were sold for the HD performances.Richard Ouzounian, "Opera Screen Dream: Met simulcasts heat up plexes in cities, stix", Variety, March 5–11, 2007, pp. 41/42 According to General Manager Peter Gelb, there were 60,000 people in cinemas around the world watching the March 24 transmission of The Barber of Seville.Peter Gelb, speaking during the intermission on March 24, 2007, noted that over 250 movie theatres were presenting the performance that day. The New York Times reported that 324,000 tickets were sold worldwide for the 2006–07 season, while each simulcast cost $850,000 to $1 million to produce.Daniel Wakin, "Met Opera to Expand Simulcasts in Theaters" , The New York Times, May 17, 2007
If one counts Il trittico as a single work, this is the only Met Live in HD season in which every work broadcast is by a different composer. The Met nearly accomplished this during the 2014–15 season, but swapped Il barbiere di Siviglia in for The Death of Klinghoffer, thus causing a double-up of Rossini operas (as La donna del lago was already scheduled).
2007–2008 Due to the success of the first season, the Metropolitan Opera decided to increase the number of HD broadcasts to movie theaters from six to eight during the 2007–2008 season. Further, the number of available theaters expanded to 330 across the US and additional countries throughout the world.
The first showing on December 15, 2007, Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, was seen on 477 screens and sold an estimated 97,000 tickets. The series continued by featuring seven more of the Met's productions following Roméo et Juliette and ending with La fille du régiment on April 26, 2008.
The Met planned to broadcast to double the number of theaters in the US compared with the previous season, as well as to additional countries. The number of participating venues in the US, which includes movie theatre chains as well as independent theatres and some college campus venues, was 343. While "the scope of the series expands to include more than 700 locations across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.... The Met has said that it hopes to reach as many as one million audience members with this season's HD transmissions"Adam Wasserman, "Changing Definitions", Opera News, December 2007, p. 60
The schedule of live broadcasts included:
Gounod's Roméo et Juliette (Anna Netrebko, Roberto Alagna, Nathan Gunn, conducted by Plácido Domingo), broadcast on December 15, 2007 Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel (Christine Schäfer, Alice Coote, Philip Langridge, conducted by Vladimir Jurowski), broadcast on January 1, 2008 Verdi's Macbeth (Željko Lučić, Maria Guleghina, John Relyea, conducted by James Levine), broadcast on January 12, 2008 Puccini's Manon Lescaut (Karita Mattila, Marcello Giordani, Dwayne Croft, conducted by James Levine), broadcast on February 16, 2008 Britten's Peter Grimes (Anthony Dean Griffey, Patricia Racette, Felicity Palmer, conducted by Donald Runnicles), broadcast on March 15, 2008 Wagner's Tristan und Isolde (Deborah Voigt, Robert Dean Smith, Matti Salminen, conducted by James Levine), broadcast on March 22, 2008