A Second Hearing

If you are new to opera or even if you are an opera veteran the NY Metropolitan Opera’s weekly radio broadcast offers the opportunity to hear some of the best singers in the world perform and also the chance to learn a few things about opera. The Met has been broadcasting opera since 1931 and now reaches an international audience in some 40 countries.  This past weekend’s broadcast was Puccini’s “La Boheme” .  La Boheme was the my first opera experience seen at Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown, NY.  I wasn’t bowled over by the opera, not because the performances were bad but for reasons I’ll address shortly.  I was pleased to hear this popular opera again now that I have a few years of opera under my belt.  Although listening to opera on the radio on a Saturday morning while working around the house is not the best circumstance to evaluate a performance, it was quite enjoyable and left me wanting to see the opera live again.  José Luis Duval as Rodolfo was terrific in his performance of “Che Gelida Manina”  in Act 1.  Hear this well known aria performed by tenor Jussi Bjorling 1936 {Mp3}. 

One of the best features of the Met Broadcast are the intermissions.  Every intermission has some educational component that may or may not relate to the current production.  Usually there is panel of experts that discuss the topic and share their broad range of opera knowledge.  Recently (Feb 12) there was an discussion of opera with director Martin Scorsese and Howard Shore, composer of “Lord of the Rings” soundtrack.  This week there was a behind the scenes series with fascinating interviews of the production staff of electricians, carpenters and others telling about their respective rolls and the logistics of staging operas at the Met.  Since the Met is a reporatory company several operas are in production at the same time.  On Saturday, for instance, La Boheme was the matinee performance and Verdi’s Nabucco the evening. 

The longstanding “Opera Quiz” is the main intermission feature.  Here the panel (which varies every week) attempts to answer questions sent in by listeners.  On Feb 12 there was a great answer by British conductor Mark Elder in response to a question from a teenager about how to get friends interested in opera.  The jist of what he said was that it is critical that new opera goers sit as close as possible to the “source of the sound”, as he put it, in order to fully connect the music with the emotional component of opera.  Sitting far away from the stage for a novice makes it difficult to make a connection with the interplay of music and theatrical elements.  He also went on to say how important it was for the singers to be able to bring the opera alive with performances that help the audience make this connection. to draw them into the “emotional world” of the opera. 

His comments made perfect sense to me and jibbed with my own experience.  Our seats at Seattle Opera are fourth row gallery on the left side (they are very reasonably priced).  Although we are on the side, we’re very close to the stage.  We can see facial expressions and of course can hear well. I’ve sat farther back in the house a number of times and find closer to be much better.  The only downside is one has to work harder to see the supertitles since they are high about the stage ( the very expensive seats just to the right of us in the center section have the same problem).  During my recent trip to Greece a friend went with Sue and sat in our seats and she said it made a world of difference for her.  In the past she had only sat in the far back and had a hard time engaging with the operas she has seen.  My experience at Glimmerglass suddenly made sense.  Glimmerglass is a unique house in that is partially open air although it is a covered structure.  The day I saw La Boheme it was cool and wet and I was actually cold during the performance which was very distracting.  We also sat on the far side near the back leaving me very much out of touch with the singers.  My advice to the beginner: sit as close as you can afford.  Try getting tickets on the front sides they are more affordable than the center sections. 

BBC archive of Met Quiz and intermission features mentioned above

Met Opera Broadcast Website