Centuries ago, when opera was developed, there were frequently debates about which element was more important, the music or the text. Today, the most crucial question is: Do you want butter with your popcorn?
Thanks to the Metropolitan Opera, which introduced the concept of digitally transmitted performances to movie theaters a couple years ago, people all over the country and abroad are heading to the local cineplex to get their fix of Verdi, Puccini and Wagner. Locally, big movie theaters in Abingdon and Columbia signed on quickly to the Met's live simulcasts with subtitles.
"I originally tried to get the Met series," says Buzz Cusak, who runs the Charles Theatre in Baltimore. "But they had a 40-mile, noncompete clause." (The Lyric Opera House, which recently installed the equipment to offer the Met's satellite transmissions, is not a regular movie theater.)
"Then I started getting e-mails from other digital companies that had relationships with other opera companies," Cusak says. One of those new competitors to the Met's product, Emerging Pictures, got his attention. "It was appealing because they had La Scala. I thought people would like it."
Milan's La Scala has had its share of artistic ups-and-downs, but is still considered the leading Italian opera house. It's audiences, too, are famous, especially for vociferously making their displeasure known during and after performances.
In addition to La Scala, Emerging Pictures offers productions from Venice and other Italian cities, as well as other European countries.
There's one primary difference between these presentations and those from the Met - the New York performances are beamed live to theaters; until this month, the ones from Europe have been filmed live and transmitted after editing. The first simulcast was of a production of Verdi's Don Carlo on the opening night at La Scala, one of the most glittery social events of the Italian season.
"I heard tickets to La Scala that night went as high as $2,400," Cusak says. "You could see it at the Charles for $20."
Another simulcast from La Scala, of Rossini's Il viaggio a Reims, is being planned for April.
"There's nothing like a live performance," says Allan Starkey, a Baltimore opera buff who travels to Lincoln Center several times a year for in-person Met experiences. But he's also a regular at the Met's area cinema partners and now the Charles, where he particularly enjoyed last season's five-hour showing of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde from La Scala.
