A Note from the Guest Editors

The conductor enters the pit, the lights go down, and an expectant hush descends over the auditorium of the Metropolitan Opera as the overture begins. But I’m not at the Met or even in New York; I’m in Screen 3 of my local movie theater, cradled by the same plush seat I recently occupied for the latest Star Wars installment. Welcome to The Met: Live in HD, a twenty-first-century phenomenon that is transforming the way we experience opera—or so we’re told. Launched in 2006 with Julie Taymor’s production of The Magic Flute, the series seemed to catch the public imagination, with the result that the initially limited network of movie theaters grew rapidly, as did the number of productions broadcast. Now, ten times a year, the Met broadcasts a Saturday matinee performance live via satellite to approximately 2,000 cinemas worldwide. It’s a model at once rooted in tradition (the Met has been broadcasting Saturday matinees on radio since the 1930s) and beholden to new technology (only the conversion of cinemas worldwide to digital projection made live video transmission possible). In Europe, the 1pm New York matinee becomes, thanks to the time difference, a traditional evening performance; for audiences on the U.S. west coast, it means a 10am performance.