At a recent board meeting (during which, incidentally, questions of programming do not generally come up, aside from in a reportage sort of a way... that is, after all, supposed to be my dept.) one of our longest standing board members blurted out a suggestion. Essentially, it boiled down to this.
Last month, the Met live telecast featured a production of Turandot. And, hey, why haven't we done Turandot? That's one heck of a great opera!
I had to take a deep breath and count to ten. (One, two, three, four, five--oh to hell with it!) See the fact of the matter is, there's a new kid on the block. And he's bigger and stronger and better funded than all the rest of us put together. Oh, and he's playing for keeps, too. His name is Peter Gelb. And his mission? Simple. Restore the Metropolitan Opera's international footprint to its former glory. Trouble is, his plan doesn't exactly take into account the needs of us little guys.
It got to the point where mayors could be heard boasting of more than just their symphony orchestras, museums and ballet companies, but also of their opera companies, too. Home-spun opera! Who'd a thunk it? And pioneers like Sarah Cauldwell and John Crosby scratched and clawed and kicked and screamed until somehow audiences actually gave a damn. And regional USA discovered it didn't really miss those Met tours all that much.
Now, technology's shifted the equation again. And what had once been trashed as a way too costly and risky endeavor, namely touring big lavish opera productions, is now completely manageable thanks to the miracle of satellite and HD projection.
Our Director of Education recently reported the sad news that 3 of our 12 local school partners, with whom we'd worked for nearly 15 yrs. to build programs introducing students to the art form, had either decided to jump ship in favor of the Met's HD educational initiative, or at least scale back their involvement with us and offer both to the students.
Can't say as I blame 'em exactly. Rumor has it, the music teachers were all wined and dined during an all-expenses-paid week of studying the Met study guides in Manhattan last month.
Not sure how we're expected to compete with all this. (I can't really afford to send our ocal music teachers off to New York City.) But I can say one thing. No matter how many cameras they bring into Lincoln Center, or how many gorgeous closeups of the biggest names in the biz they deliver, there's one thing that HD will never be able to deliver. Spit and sweat.
I imagine, only time will tell whether our audiences give a hoot.
