The Met Opera tests pay-per-view model

The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Tuesday, March 19, 2024


The Met Opera tests pay-per-view model
The tenor Jonas Kaufmann, with the pianist Helmut Deutsch, performed a greatest-hits arias program near Munich. After the coronavirus pandemic forced concert halls and opera houses to close this spring, online performances proliferated ant the Metropolitan Opera began streaming nightly operas from its extensive video archive. Metropolitan Opera via The New York Times.

by Anthony Tommasini



NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- After the coronavirus pandemic forced concert halls and opera houses to close this spring, online performances proliferated. The Metropolitan Opera began streaming nightly operas from its extensive video archive, and in April it presented an At-Home Gala, broadcast over smartphones from the homes of singers around the world.

The classical music and opera offerings this spring and summer have mostly been free — and tremendously gratifying. But as cancellations continue into the fall, and beyond, organizations have worried that listeners will start taking free performances for granted.

So the Met is testing whether audiences will pay for digital content with a series of recitals by some of its biggest stars; the first, on Saturday, featured tenor Jonas Kaufmann. Tickets are $20, roughly the price of the Met’s Live in HD movie-theater transmissions (and the performances remain available on demand for 12 days).

The endeavor might bring in some much-needed revenue for a company that is losing up to $100 million in sales during its theater’s closure, which will last at least until the end of the year. But perhaps even more important, the recitals are intended to stimulate donations. “Fundraising ebbs and flows according to activities and events,” Peter Gelb, the company’s general manager, said in a recent interview with The New York Times.

The Met’s At-Home Gala used charmingly makeshift technology. Kaufmann’s concert, by comparison, offered professional camera work, including many — maybe too many — dramatic close-ups, and high-quality sound. (At least, after a glitch when the audio briefly dropped out just as Kaufmann began singing the aria “Recondita armonia” from Puccini’s “Tosca.”)

The program, with pianist Helmut Deutsch, consisted of 11 arias and one Italian song performed (without a live audience) in the ornate 18th-century library of Polling Abbey near Munich, where Kaufmann lives. With a couple of exceptions, this was a greatest-hits collection of numbers from “Tosca,” “Turandot,” “Roméo et Juliette,” “La Gioconda” and more. Still, Kaufmann has been perhaps the Met’s most elusive star, and it was exciting to hear him again, even over a livestream.




The concert had a feeling of unusual intimacy, like a song recital; Kaufmann and Deutsch, an elegant pianist, have been frequent partners in recordings and performances of lieder. The familiar arias felt like they had been considered anew, and Kaufmann’s singing was splendid — his voice vibrant with dusky colors and warmth, his phrasing impassioned.

When called for, he drew on smoldering power, as in his heroic account of an aria from Giordano’s “Andrea Chénier.” Yet I’ve seldom heard the “Flower Song” from Bizet’s “Carmen” sung with such tenderness and vulnerability. Kaufmann did the climactic phrase with a softness rare among tenors, following the pianissimo dynamic Bizet wrote in the score. The high B-flat was beautifully subdued.

To give Kaufmann some breaks Saturday, excerpts from his Met Live in HD broadcasts were shown, including scenes from Wagner’s “Die Walküre,” Massenet’s “Werther” and Puccini’s “La Fanciulla del West.” There was even footage of Kaufmann performing “Vesti la giubba” from “Pagliacci” at the Salzburg Easter Festival in 2015.

If all this, and the photo montages of Kaufmann in action at the Met, pushed the promotional trappings a little too obviously, no matter. Revisiting his triumphs was a reminder of what opera fans are missing right now. The 12-concert recital series, hosted by Christine Goerke, will include performances from various locations by Renée Fleming, Anna Netrebko, Joyce DiDonato, Bryn Terfel, Angel Blue, Lise Davidsen and others.

One delicate issue came up during Gelb’s recent Times interview: While the stars participating in the series are being paid, the Met’s orchestra and chorus, among other employees, remain furloughed. But Gelb said the recitals, and other initiatives, are necessary to keep the company going.

“If there’s no Met to come back to,” he said, “the jobs of our furloughed artists will be lost.”

Kaufmann implicitly acknowledged this at the end of the concert, after a valiant performance of “Nessun dorma.” He and Deutsch, following hygiene protocols, bumped elbows instead of shaking hands. Then Kaufmann spoke of what a “pleasure and privilege” it was to be the first singer in the recital series. Not all musicians have that privilege right now, he added. So he announced that he was donating $5,000 to the Met, with the hope that its artists and audiences will be together again soon.

© 2020 The New York Times Company










Today's News

July 20, 2020

Kunstmuseum Basel opens its first exhibition dedicated to the history of photography

McNay Art Museum acquires three new outdoor sculptures for permanent collection

To buy this Basquiat, swipe right

57 works by Edward Hopper on display all summer at Indianapolis Museum of Art

Exceptional collection of Post-Impressionist art on view in Canada for the first time

Ancient mosaic from Roman Dorset at risk of export

Luther Price, experimental artist and filmmaker, dies at 58

Aperture announces a time-limited sale of three collectible prints by Joel Meyerowitz

2001: A Space Odyssey suit and Neil Armstrong's Apollo 11 control stick each sold for $370,000

Gerald Peters Gallery opens an exhibition of paintings by Michael Cassidy

H&H Classics to offer wonderful barn-find discovery

The Met Opera tests pay-per-view model

Thai metal workshop dazzles tourists with movie-inspired creations

Man questioned in arson probe into French cathedral fire

Korat will host the next Thailand Biennale 2021

Turkey's Erdogan visits Hagia Sofia after reconversion to mosque

Heritage Auctions promotes Leon Benrimon to Vice President of Modern & Contemporary Art

Exhibition celebrates a reunion of work by the artists Art Below has presented throughout its 15-year history

Kohn Gallery opens a solo exhibition of paintings and sculpture by artist Nir Hod

Thierry Goldberg opens summer group show

Museum of Graffiti opens "The Fabric of America: Artists in Protest"

Southern Europe opens its doors to tourists. Not many are coming.

Designers rally to support the East Hampton Historical Society Online Auction

Soho House announces the inaugural Soho House Art Prize with Bombay Sapphire

"Finite Rants" presents a visual essay by Bertrand Bonello




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez

sa gaming free credit
Attorneys
Truck Accident Attorneys
Accident Attorneys

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site Parroquia Natividad del Señor
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful