“More Live Than Live” - HD Live Metropolitan Opera Coming to hundreds of local theaters in the U.S. and in more than 50 countries worldwide

I got my ticket in advance for this Saturday’s opera (Oct.29, 2011). It comes live in HD, directly as it is happening in New York’s Carnegie Hall - everything those in the audience see and hear…everything and a lot more. Peter Gelb, the general manager of the Metropolitan Opera says, “the key to the excitement over High Definition broadcasts is that it’s live.”

It’s more live than live - It’s always exciting to be in an audience for any live performance, but with HD Live, there isn’t a bad seat in the house. In many ways, it’s actually better than being there because the camera knows where to look. The camera goes right up into the performers’ faces - you see the heavy breathing and sweat-equity. You wouldn’t get this if you were in the back balcony, barely able to define the characters. You really experience the efforts they’re making - you see the emotions in their voices and movements, nothing stands still.

It’s better than a movie in your home - the screen is larger than large; you feel you are standing right next to one of the stars. The director knows where to go to emphasize the storyline, the music and the voices - it’s a total picture.

In the intermission, you get to travel - often like a path, following performers backstage to meet the stars. Out of their stage characters, you experience them as real people. After the break, they slip back into the story - they are transformed and so are you.

Even with all this personalization, the film crew never forces the performers to film-act for the camera - no movements specificly just for the camera - in fact there are often little human glitches - a natural wink, a roll of the eyes…and no multiple takes, they go right on - the ripples of heaving chest muscles, a smile where it shouldn’t be, that’s part of the fun.

My dear friend Bonnie Liebmann of Santa Cruz is the one to thank for bringing Opera to that town.

Santa Cruz (I don’t need to say California) has a lot of musical opportunities, a variety of venues but it does not have an opera company. Bonnie came to Santa Cruz twelve years ago from San Francisco and Baltimore but she is really a New York girl - graduating from Julliard, then graduating from Broadway - singing, dancing but she has always been an opera diva in her heart.

Many conversations among town’s people about “Wish we had opera here in town.” Or they would talk about their experiences at the San Francisco Opera; one S.C. local said she actually even met Placido Domingo in San Francisco - wouldn’t we all like to do that. Well, I saw him live in Golden Gate Park with everyone and there picnic lunch - what a day.

But how did Bonnie get Met Opera HD Live to come to Santa Cruz - grit… from a beautiful elegant woman, that and persistence, almost single-handed. Her efforts started the year before. She put the Met together with various venues in town; she made the deals, she did promotion, she placed the people, calmed the ruffled divas of small town politicians and business people - almost as difficult as producing the actual opera.

Liebmann told me, “Last year, I had some financial help from the Redevelopment Agency, but that ran out last November. On my own again…You know Regal Theaters stopped putting their own movie schedules in the Sentinel (newspaper), so of course, no more Regal listings for us.

Bonnie also connected with SCOSI (Santa Cruz Opera Society Inc.). 

“I have been a member of SCOSI so I discussed my plight with SCOSI’s director Miriam Ellis. She is a mover - professor emeritus in French language and culture, she was made a Chevalier de Palmes de Academiques (putting this in so you can see what the medal looks like: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordre_des_Palmes_Acad%C3%A9miques ).”

Chevalier means knight - I’m impressed. And UCSC (University of California at Santa Cruz) will be naming a new theater after her, to be constructed on campus.

Bonnie says, “Miriam told me, ‘I think we can help you; SCOSI is a registered nonprofit. We can help with promotion - a small ad, maybe write a grant, help deliver flyers for you - I’ll get the group members to help.'”

Lots happening in Santa Cruz for the opera season. Bonnie goes on, “There’s a Monday night opera hour at 7PM on KUSP where Miriam is often on the program. And there are the opera classes she teaches, even one of the SCOSI members has written a mystery novel, with many place names in the story. With SCOSI’s help this year, it won’t be all on my shoulders. Also, we plan on having a fundraiser this season - we want to raise money to develop a program so school children can have the Live Opera experience. Give people an opera exposure when they’re children, then it won’t be foreign to them later - opera should be as natural as any kind of storytelling.”

All this can be used as a model for any town out there who does not yet have Met HD Live and wants to develop the opportunities. Put a team together; you see how possible it is. And it’s so enjoyable - a thrill and a privilege to be part of opera sharing.

Last year was the first season for opera in Santa Cruz. The turnout was celebratory - everyone had a great time, and this year, again, off to an excellent start.

Bonnie Liebmann, you are deeply appreciated - you are a treasure.

Because I moved to Ashland, Oregon, I viewed the HD Live performance in nearby Medford. They have an active opera group, even their own opera company, Rogue Opera , named after the Rogue River if any of you aren’t familiar with Southern Oregon. They just held a wine, food and music event on Oct. 23, at a vineyard in the quaint Victorian/Old West town of Jacksonville. It was billed as a “Soiree” to celebrate their 2012 performance of “The Elixir of Love.” I love that opera.

The first HD Live opera of this season was Donizetti’s “Anna Bolena” viewed on October 15, with another Anna in the staring diva role - the juicy Anna Netrebko. “Anna Bolena” was great. Netrebco is an actual diva, no pretending, she just is - even though she fluently combines singing and acting in a serious way.

There are so many special advantages of HD Live. Just before every performance, cameras pan the audience as the public finds their seats; you get a demographic slant on who’s coming to the opera - it’s a matinee performance so operagoer’s are not formally dressed - you see a broad range of age and appearance, but all with bustling enthusiasm. Then a call backstage of, “Maestro to the pit.” The conductor enters; again as the camera pans, now focused on the orchestra, musicians and their instruments - ah, the instruments are works of art - as they perform the overture.

The architecture of the staging is both strong and convincing as supposed Greenwich Castle where Queen Anne is losing her position, to her lady-in-waiting, Jane Seymour (Ekaterina Gubanova). She expresses her guilt for taking Anna’s place as Queen, but is she really sorry.

Lord Percy appears. He was Anna’s young love, some historic documents say they married but were not allowed to stay together. In those times an influential person must obtain permission from the king to marry. King Henry believes Anne and Percy are still lovers.

There is the issue of a miniature portrait of Queen Anna, set in jewels on a chain, given to Smeaton, a court musician who is in love with Anna. The camera goes in so we can see the tiny portrait. Percy and Smeaton are arrested as adulterers and traitors to the King.

As Intermission, the camera follows a path backstage through crew and performers to a place where host Renee Fleming - a diva herself - interviews performers and others critical to the performance. Renee asks Anna Netrebco if she would like to say a few words in Russian to her fans - she does of course, up into the camera in a familiar and coquettish way. They talk about how this is the first year for Russia to participate in HD Live - the first season for them to see her up close.

It’s great fun when she gives anecdotal snippets on her personal life - how she starts her day making breakfast cereal for her little son Tiago…ah, the great diva making breakfast, hard to believe.

Then Anna comments on her own performance saying, “I looked very queenie.” She said she watched “The Tudors,” to get into the spirit of the times, all this with girlish little laughs. A must see is  http://operachic.typepad.com/opera_chic/anna_netrebko/ where Netrebko is luminescent. This photo shoot is very revealing with her partner Erwin Schrott, the Uruguayan baritone. Some call them the Brad and Angelina of Opera.

Still backstage, Anna and Renee Fleming comment how the three major players in this opera are Russian. Ildar Abdrazkov says, “I feel the real Henry,” as he appears and sounds like everyone’s image of Henry VIII. They talk about how Bel Canto operas allow for improvisation.

Throughout both Acts, Ekaterina Gubanova as Henry’s soon-to-be next wife and queen, Jane Seymour showed a beautiful voice and a soulful simpatico with her former friend, Queen Anne Boleyn. And the king sings some memorable words referring to how he believes Anna has betrayed him with her former lover, Percy. He believes Anna “loves my thrown, not me.” He can’t get over Anna married Percy first before she married him. The king can’t take second place, and we believe him.

The costuming is spectacular, accomplished by Jenny Tiramani, so opulent, seemingly accurate to the period and more so. The jewelry, up close, so real…they must be real.

Some call the ending the “Mad Scene” for Anna. The opera world is replete with various mad scenes where a tragic heroine is delusional to the point of self-destruction. Here, Anna does not physically take out a knife, but she does torment herself in a reverie of her past, her wedding to the king and her young love for Percy.

The King sees Anna’s deception as a personal affront to his perfection as a monarch. He allows for no mercy; he passes judgment and so does his Council - the Queen must die for her tarnished loyalty.

Fate, passion, betrayal, sympathy, love by definition, storytelling by weaving threads of gold and linen…music both ravishing and thunderous - these are the ways of opera. They draw us out, rough us up and sooth us out - high emotions in a short afternoon of time.

You must listen to this. This is how we sing. This is why we sing. http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=NLjuGPBusxs&vq=medium Opera de Navarre

After this Saturday, Oct. 29, I will review “Don Giovani” the HD Live performance of November 5, and make some comparisons to other performances. I am one of Don Giovani’s ladies - he is a bad boy.