By Patricia Ducey. If you were thrilled at Lt. Colonel Kilgore’s mad helicopter ride in Apocalypse Now or swept away by the portentous opening of Terrence Malick’s The New World, you may already be an opera lover. Moviemakers have always borrowed from the rich store of classical music – and very liberally from Richard Wagner – to heighten the emotion and theatricality of their productions, and now the Metropolitan Opera is offering HD productions of the source operas themselves.
We are all now able to share these performances live across the world. At 1 p.m. the curtain rises in New York; at 10 a.m. in California we sip our coffees and wait for the theater to darken; in Switzerland they dress in formals and make an evening of it. Now in its fifth season, “The Met: Live” is the perfect marriage of myth, movie artistry and music – and it’s also affordable at roughly $22 per ticket. Last season’s Tosca and Turandot, thoroughly grounded in the familiar narrative territory of romantic literature and soaring arias, won me over – and so I ventured out recently to what I hoped would not be a morning misspent with Herr Wagner …
To be honest, in 21st century America our sensibilities have been trained to respond to the conventions of moviemaking – i.e., camera angles, close-ups, etc. – so as a neophyte opera fan, I find these ‘movie’ productions almost better than some of the live productions I’ve seen. “Not if you had good seats!” my opera loving friend counters, but how many of us can afford that $200-plus ‘good’ ticket? In the Met: Live productions, the production team expertly uses the camera to enhance the storytelling so that we’re not, for instance, continuously scanning a huge faraway stage for the action. So for anyone who did not grow up with this art form as part of their national culture, the familiar conventions of filmmaking prove an invaluable aid here. In addition, the Live broadcasts open with a backstage tour, led (on this occasion) by Deborah Voigt, and include interviews with the cast (with shoutouts to their countrymen) and wardrobe/production staff, along with a “making of the Ring” mini-doc – all of which makes the opera very accessible.
The Met: Live opened October 9 th with Das Rheingold (“The Rhine Gold”), the 2.5-hour prelude to Richard Wagner’s massive-in-scope “Ring-cycle.” The entire cycle runs approximately 15 hours and is meant to be seen in four sittings. In this epic undertaking, Wagner creates an entire mythical world, borrowed from Norse and medieval German sagas, with gods and creatures engulfed in struggles for power and greed and love, all culminating in the four-hour Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods).
The opera opens with three entrancing Rhine maidens who guard the store of magical gold under the Rhine – and the evil Alberich, the dwarf who unsuccessfully woos the beauties. Angered by their rejection, he renounces love and steals their gold and forges it into a ring that the mermaid-like creatures have promised will allow any who possess it to rule the earth. We then meet the gods Wotan, his wife Fricka, and their progeny. Wotan would like to rule the earth as well, and outsmarts Alberich to steal the ring. Plot complications ensue, and the ring eventually ends up in other hands – Wotan trades away the ring for a safe home for his fellow gods. At the conclusion of Das Rheingold, his reunited family ascends into beautiful Valhalla, safe at last. Yet, as we hear the strains of familiar chords, we know that the peace of Valhalla is but a chimera; something is coming – something larger than life, something wonderful.
Terrence Malick, incidentally, who is a student of German philosophy, used the image of the water nymphs in the opening scenes of New World – mirroring the opening of Das Rheingold. I can only wonder if this was intentional. Another mythmaker, J. R.R. Tolkein, long-ago acknowledged his borrowing of the all-powerful gold ring for his own ‘Rings-cycle’ – as well as his indebtedness to Wagner’s vision.
Given the sterility and vapidity of our modern day myths (currently, Avatar), exploring opera, theater, short films or foreign films as we do at LFM can only enrich our understanding of filmmaking culture, infusing it with the chords and themes that have resonated in humanity through the ages; indeed, this may be the only way that new film practices will emerge, once the tiresome contemporary genres of the anti-hero, of puerile sexuality, or of nihilism have run their course.
While we await this salutary development, check out this schedule and make a date for The Met: Live. [There is an encore performance of Das Rheingold on October 27th.] I am not quite a Ringhead yet, but I will definitely make time for the others and certainly for The Valkyrie. These operas have it all: fierce heroes and heroines, magical golden rings, illicit love – and, most of all, majestically beautiful music.
Posted on October 12th, 2010 at 12:57pm.
I’ve been an opera fan, and Wagner fan, for 40 years. I’ve been to the Met about half a dozen times over the years, and I can tell you that seeing the Met Live in HD broadcasts is 10x better than being there at 1/10 the price. Fifteen years ago I paid $200 to sit in the front row orchestra center and it was almost a partial view because the conductor’s head was right in front of me. Yes, the overall experience of going to the Met — coming to Lincoln Center, going past the Chagall tapestries, sitting in the magnificent auditorium under the huge chandeliers — is unforgettable, but it’s so expensive as to be prohibitive on a regular basis.
There are many wonderful things about the broadcasts that are touched on in the post, but I want to highlight something implicit in what Ms. Ducey said. Because the broadcast are so darned cheap, it encourages people to experiment and broaden their horizons. Although I’ve been listening to opera for 40 years, I really only knew a very tiny portion of the repertoire, because I did not want to spend $100+ for a ticket (even to a local opera company [I live in the Boston area]) for a performance of something I didn’t already know well. At $22 I almost can’t afford *not* to experiment, and as a result my opera horizons have expanded tremendously. So I’ve gone to “Dr. Atomic”, John Adam’s opera about the making of the atomic bomb, and although I had a mixed reaction to it, it encouraged me to go see his “Nixon in China” that’s being done later this season. I *never* would have considered doing that at typical opera prices. My wife and I have bought tickets for friends of ours who’ve never been to an opera in their lives. More of our entertainment dollars are going to Met Live in HD because it’s such an incredible bargain.
One word on the camera work. The first Met Live in HD broadcast we saw was in 2008 — Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde.” This can be a tough opera to sit through, being a good four hours long and with very little action — what action there is, is mostly in the principals’ heads. I had heard it performed only once before, at the Met in 1971, when I had a partial view seat way up in a balcony where you had to bring your own oxygen; my wife had never seen it before. Both of us were absolutely riveted. The opera opens (after the prelude) on board the ship bringing Isolde to Cornwall, with a solitary sailor singing a slow lament for her. The screen started out blank, with a small “picture in picture” of the ship in the center. As the sailor sang, the p-in-p slowly grew to cover the entire screen. It was very effective, and was both logical and unobtrusive (i.e., it didn’t draw attention to itself as a piece of technique). Later in the opera, the camera people made very effective use of the picture-in-picture, showing p-in-p closeups of one character singing and separate p-in-p views of others reacting to what was being sung. You felt as though you were intimately present in the scene — something that could never happen if you’re sitting back in row XX under the balcony.
All hail the Met for this pioneering work of bringing culture to the people!
Great comments. I also have heard that the camera work has really grown in artistry since the first season. The overheard shots of the temple in Turandot, for instance, were so effective I wonder if the scene wasn’t directed specifically for the camera and not the live audience.
And when the credits for this season first appear on the screen introducing the “thrilling” lineup, for once it is not one bit of hyperbole. Thrilling it is, so all hail to the Met!
How wonderful to have Libertas Film Magazine finally start writing about the marvelous Metropolitan Opera film broadcasts! I have been going to these since the first season and except for an interruption last year, have seen all but four broadcasts. I agree with Paul, who has written above, that they are an amazing bargain. In fact, in many ways, going to the films is much better than going to a live performance. The close ups of the singers enable you to see every expression on their faces, details of their costumes, and the subtleties of the interaction between the characters in a way that you could never see if you were simply watching them on stage. Even the intermissions are interesting as the host of each broadcast is usually a major Metropolitan Opera singer. In the past we have had Renee Fleming and Susan Graham as well as others conducting interviews and talking about interesting aspects of the current production. For “Das Rheingold” we had the beautiful Deborah Voigt (who performed as Isolde in “Tristan and Isolde” two seasons ago and will be performing as Brunnhilde in “Die Walkure”.) Each of these hosts interviews the major stars and gives us interesting insights into their take on their characters and the overall production. Sometimes we get interesting backstage glimpses of the set changes as dozens of workmen shift scenery and furniture. Sometimes we are even lucky enough to have an interview with the conductor. The most delightful part of the performance for me, however, is when you hear the following direction being broadcast to the conductor just before the start of the performance, “Maestro to the pit, Maestro to the pit” to James Levine, or Valery Gergiev or whoever happens to be conducting that day, and you know that something marvelous is about to begin. How fortunate we are to have such riches now available. I no longer feel sad that summer has slipped away because now that it is autumn I can look forward to seeing one or two operas a month until it is summertime again.
Jason, you may like to have a reviewer also keep track of what is being broadcast in a new series that is equally as exciting. Many important theatrical performances are now also being filmed. I recently saw the National Theatre production of Jean Racine’s “Phaedra” starring Helen Mirrin. It was absolutely marvelous. The drama was so incredibly intense, the acting so superb, the diction so perfect you could hear every word…it was the very, very best of English theatre. I couldn’t believe that there were only about 70 people in a theatre for 300 the night I went. This is probably because so few people know that these broadcasts are taking place. They will be going on for the next year in many of the same theatres that broadcast the Metropolitan Opera performances but usually on Thursday night rather than Saturday afternoon. Among the plays coming up are Christopher Plummer in “The Tempest” (November 6), “Hamlet” (December 9), “King Lear” (February 3) and “The Cherry Orchard”, (June 30th). I am not sure if these are all National Theatre productions but some likely will be. For anyone who enjoys good theatre, they will be very worth seeing. While I know this is a film site, the fact that theatrical productions are being produced on film, is an important extension of what can be made available to us now because of film. These productions are not movies, as they are live theatrical performances and still theatre, but the theatre in a form that can be shared through the media of film far and wide throughout the world.
Thanks so much for your comments, BB! We’re glad you appreciate the post. We will definitely keep an eye on these broadcasts in the future – and thanks so much for mentioning the National Theatre productions, as well. The idea of Christopher Plummer in The Tempest sounds marvelous …
I’ve been hearing about these broadcasts for years but haven’t gone yet. I really have to make the time and go. The popularity of the Met broadcasts just goes to show that the culture isn’t completely dumbed down yet. Patricia’s great review and the enthusiasm of the commenters here gives me hope that people still care about the higher things in life like the opera.
Good luck getting tickets now. There has been a veritable avalanche of pent-up demand, and despite the increasing number of venues in everything from major cities to rural towns (try finding Shelburne Falls, Mass. on a map!), the tickets generally sell out very early in the season. This year I became a Met member at $120 just to get the right to buy tickets ahead of the general public. And if you get tickets at a movie theater or other venue with general (as opposed to reserved) seating, better get there a good hour before showtime. At our local theater near Boston, people smuggle in lunch, and if you come in later than, say, 30 minutes before showtime you’ll be sitting in the very front rows.
On the “people still care about the higher things in life” point, I must make the obligatory observation that very few people under the age of 50 can be seen at the three venues I’ve been to in three different cities. Once, when the broadcast of “La Boheme” had to be cancelled at our local theater due to reception problems, I though the theater manager would be beaten to death by the canes, walkers, and oxygen tanks of the people in the front row.
Yes, buy your tickets online in advance. You may have to go out to the hinterlands a little too.
I have to say tho the 10 a.m. Wagner performance in So Cal was about half full–it’s sold out in Switzerland, for instance, where it broadcasts at night. Young people are attending too, so they may catch on to it here too!
http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/culture/Opera_fans_dress_up_for_a_night_at_the_movies.html?cid=28508820
Have to jump in and add another comment here. Our local Odeon Cineplex is very good about compensating members of the audience if anything goes wrong with a broadcast. They immediately offer to give a free ticket to each member of the audience if there is even a few minutes break in the transmission of the opera. I have been given three free tickets for future operas in this way. During the broadcast of “Turandot” last year, there were several breaks in the transmission and after the third break there was an announcement that free tickets to a future opera production would be handed out at the end of the performance. The theatre even gave those of us attending the last opera in the first season a “special program” free ticket that could be redeemed for a ticket to any of the operas being broadcast in the next year. No need to attack the manager with canes, walkers or oxygen tanks here!
Thanks for your comments.
We had problems with Turandot last year too! And they did give us a free ticket.
Same here. The manager offered free tickets to the encore showing or to any other opera, plus a free pass to anything else playing in the theater complex. Someone shouted, “How about giving us our money back?” and that quickly became the preferred option.
Ok, I know its a little lowbrow…but was I the only one remembering “What’s Opera Doc”?
Elmer “Oh, Bwunhilda, you’re so wuvwey”
Bugs “Yes I know it, I can’t help it”
As silly as those (and other) looney tunes were, they were my first exposure to Opera and led me to more interest in the art form in later life…
Oh, I’ll have to see that cartoon!
I saw 1/2 to 2/3rds of the ring cycle on WQED years ago. I missed part of it because my vcr broke down. I keep thinking I would like to see the rest of it, but it seems to be complicated by the people who write about opera; i think they are addressing only people who are well versed on the subject although they keep complaining that young people are not interested. my maine problem is that after reading and reading reams of material by the “experts” i am unable to determine the order of the “Ring Cycle.” for example i think the the first opera is “Das Rhinegold” and the last opera is “Twilight Of The Gods;” but I’m not even sure of that. I need to know this and where I can purchase the whole cycle by either the New York Met. or the one I partially saw produced at the bayreuth opera house in Germany.
Curtis, Welcome to the intoxicating world of Wagner! I so agree with your point that much that is written about wagner and the ring cycle is rather lofty if not highbrow! If you go to amazon and look for the 1990 Met/James levine version( Jamen Morris/Wotan Hildegard Behrens/Bruhnhilde) of the ring you will find what i belive to be one of the best versions available on dvd. Wagner Had very explicit stage directions as to what the ring should “look like” and this version seems to honor The composers vision. Also google “introduction to wagners ring” and you will find sites that lay out the music drama in a detailed yet simplistic fasionso that even a mental midget like myself can understand it .
Hello Curtis, Your question about the operas in Wagner’s “Ring Cycle” is easily answered. There are four operas and the order in which one should see them is “Das Rheingold”, “Die Walkure”, “Siegfried” and “Gotterdammerung” (“The Twilight of the Gods”). If you Google “Wagner’s Ring Cycle,” you will find an outline of the story of each opera. The video of the early 1980s Bayreuth production of the Ring Cycle which was rebroadcast last year should be available. Not sure just where but again, if you Google something like “Opera Videos” you may be able to find it. I liked their “Das Rheingold” rather more than the current Met production. Thought the Met’s Wotan was so scruffy with that awful hair. The Bayreuth production had a much more attractive Wotan. He wore a patch over his eye and seemed a much more believable god than Bryn Terfel’s Wotan. Although Terfel has a wonderful voice, all I could think of was wanting to cut his hair rather than listening to him. Of course Wotan is such a dishonest god. He promised Freia, his wife’s sister and a fellow god, to the two giants Fasholt and Fafner, in exchange for building his palace, Valhalla, then wants to renege after they complete it. He then tricks Alberich, the gnome, and steals the Rheingold from him, etc. etc. Not a very admirable god! Maybe he should look scruffy after all! There are earlier versions of the Ring Cycle that the Met has produced as well. There appears to be a DVD of the 1990 production. The various video versions of the Ring are listed in the Wikipidia entry for the Ring Cycle. Do let us know if you track down copies. I would like to get one or two myself.