Opera live from New York (From St Albans & Harpenden Review)

The Met: Live in HD broadcasts continue in London cinemas with screenings of Götterdämmerung and Ernani

3:03pm Friday 3rd February 2012 in Music News By Rosy Moorhead

The Met: Live in HD opera broadcasts continue this month with two impressive productions - Götterdämmerung and Verdi’s early masterpiece Ernani.

Götterdämmerung is the gripping climax of the Met’s Ring Cycle, which ends with Brünnhilde’s famous immolation and the burning of Valhalla, home of the gods.

Ernani is a core part of the Met’s repertory but is rarely performed in the UK, so London opera-lovers are in for a real treat. Set in 16th Century Spain during the civil war, it is as much about the pains of love as about war and rebellion, and established a robust model for Verdi’s later great tragedies.

The Live in HD broadcasts now reach more than 1,700 cinemas in 54 countries.

Elena Park, assistant manager of creative content at the Met, says: “When Peter Gelb took over as general manager in 2006, he wanted to use media technology to bring the Met to a global audience. It was a bit of a risk because it was an untried idea - live opera in a movie theatre? But audiences loved it - being connected not only to the Met but to opera lovers all over the world as well.”

Broadcasting to so many cinemas in so many countries is quite a feat. “It requires finding the right distribution partner in each country with a certain level of technical ability,” Elena explains. “Initially, people were hesitant to get involved but when the numbers started to come in, other countries were anxious to join.”

The Met’s HD team capture the matinee performance live from the stage of the Met and beam it instantly to cinemas around the world, in what is a whole new direction for the opera house’s stage managers. “One of our HD directors calls it ‘an interpretation of an interpretation’,” Elena laughs.”It’s for an audience consuming the opera in a whole different way.”

Götterdämmerung will be broadcast on Saturday, February 11 at 5pm, and Ernani will be screened on Saturday, February 25 at The Barbican, Silk Street, London (020 7638 8891, www.barbican.org.uk), at Everyman Hampstead, Holly Bush Vale, Hampstead (0871 906 9060, www.everymancinema.com) and Phoenix Cinema, High Road, East Finchley (020 8444 6789, www.phoenixcinema.co.uk)