The Met: Live in HD

Driven by a previous post of mine, To boo or not to boo? (about how the premiere of "Tosca" at the Metropolitan Opera was not very well received by audiences) I wanted to experience it for myself, and see if it really was worth all that booing.

Luckily, I found out I could "go to the Met" for just the price of a regular movie ticket. The Metropolitan Opera has a program called "The Met: Live in HD" that allows people from all over the world to go to movie theaters and public opera houses to see a live performance from the Met for a very cheap price. The thing to realize about this is that you get to experience the wonderful singing, music and staging without paying hundreds of dollars on tickets and traveling.

You don't just see the production either, you also get to see all of the behind the scenes details, which I found really interesting. There was a woman backstage interviewing cast members before the show, then at intermission there were mini documentaries with rehearsals, interviews, and various other tidbits. Between scenes the interviewer came out to chat with the main characters outside their dressing rooms, allowing you to see how surprisingly down-to-earth these brilliant performers are. It gave a really intimate view of what goes on backstage, and got you up close to the performers and scenery during the show, giving you a much better view than you would ever have if you were sitting in the audience - it was like I was there, sitting on stage.

When I found out that the Met was doing this live broadcast, I just had to get myself a ticket -but it was surprisingly hard. My local movie theater had sold out of them for both of the screens they had dedicated it to. After calling a few other places (all sold out) I ended up traveling a few towns over to get to the theater that still had seats available.

When I got there, I was the only person under seventy in the audience.