Opera with popcorn

Maybe a recession will help revive attendance at movie theaters, where escapist fare does well in hard times. Meanwhile, the cineplexes are diversifying their fare, helped along by digital technology. Among the new shows: live simulcasts of sporting events, operas, and seasonal events like Christmas concerts. Yesterday, I checked out the phenomenon by watching the Metropolitan Opera's live telecast of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. I've got some gripes. The air conditioning was cranked up too much and the sound was too loud and screechy at the top. (Lots of high notes in this opera, alas.) But the pizza during intermission was good. Opera is getting into this new form of presentation as fast as it can, with La Scala and San Francisco operas both joining the race. The Met has an advantage with big stars, and their telecasts are live, lending a kind of suspense to the shows that is not present when the broadcasts are delayed and have had some post-performance enhancing. Seattle Opera has a committee looking at the various new-media extensions, particularly on the web and HD broadcasts. My wife, Joyce, and I are hooked. The ticket prices, around $20, are a wonderful bargain for opera at this level. The telecasts provide closeups and often exciting camera work that enhances the drama. Sometimes the intermission features are illuminating, though typically they are awkward interviews with singers talking about what they ate for breakfast that day. Some performances, such as this year's Peter Grimes, Macbeth, and last year's Eugene Onegin are absolutely riveting in their in-your-face power. One of my favorite critics, Terry Teachout, compared the live version of Benjamin Britten's magnificent opera with the telecast one, and concluded: "The simulcast, by contrast, was considerably more effective than the live performance I'd seen at the Met two weeks earlier. In fact, it was overwhelming -- one of the most memorable experiences I've had in a lifetime of opera-going." But I'm also starting to have more doubts. The screen is inferior, resulting in very dark scenes. The sound quality at the Pacific Place theater yesterday was quite poor, and I wonder if the person setting sound levels is the same guy who regularly cranks up the sound track for movies. The production featured all kinds of split-screen effects, explained as an effort to get more movement into the notoriously static, undramatic Wagner opera, and to let viewers pick among wide shots (showing the full stage) or closeups. I was left wondering which directorial sensibility I was following: the stage director or the telecast director? Another unsettling aspect is the alienation effect of being part of a live audience that sometimes applauds in an embarrassed manner that is part of a worldwide audience that is part of an actual live audience at the Met. Where am I??? Who am I???? The effect must be worse at New York Mets broadcasts at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York, complete with a live organist and a team mascot leading the audience in singalongs. It's an open question whether we are witnessing the birth of a new art form, cinemacast opera, or watching the quick vulgarization of high art by a movie theater near you. The other big question is the effect these programs will have on local opera companies, who might either gain more recruits to opera or watch their audiences slink away from $100 seats in order to join the popcorn-scented folks sporting Saturday-casual clothes.