Alan on Opera-L writes:
Last night was the 5th performance of the new world premiere production of TAN DUN's THE FIRST EMPEROR at the Metropolitan Opera, and I must STRONGLY disagree with its detractors. The rainy weather had settled in, but the temperatures were in the 60's and perhaps all the illness that has been going around has died out. All the singers were in superb voice, and while I may not adore the score, this work combined with the magnificent production and truly inspiring conceptions of the entire design team gave us a truly wonderful spectacle.
and proceeds to describe the production in great detail.
Incidentally, the result of phonecalls and emails suggest very strongly there will be no opportunity to see the livecast of this in British cinemas next Saturday, which is very disappointing.
Picturehouse Cinemas told me on the phone that they intend to show some of the livecasts in late February and to check back the website at the start of February.
The Gate at Notting Hill emailed someone
Hopefully we will finalise a deal this week to take The Barber of Seville on 24 March and Il Trittico on 28 April.and Greenwich emailed someone else
We screened The Magic Flute live from The Met on Saturday night and look forward to doing further screenings in the future however, there are currently no other shows confirmed.
As I said, disappointing, but, being an eternal optimist, hopefully matters will be better organised in future seasons. The pessimist in me feels that there's probably a natural reluctance to take a screen out of general viewing on a Saturday night...
