COVID-19 Streaming — Opera edition

[nanushka]

I've really been appreciating all the notices on this site of free ballet streams, many of which I wouldn't have found on my own. I know there are a number of opera fans here, so I thought an opera-specific thread would allow us to pool our knowledge without cluttering the main thread.

As many have doubtless seen, the Mariinsky, the Bolshoi and a number of other institutions are streaming a lot of opera alongside their ballet offerings.

Dutch National Opera currently has the complete Ring cycle up. I'll add just the links for the 2nd-4th installments below, so as not to make this overly long.

Die Walküre: https://youtu.be/WsQz8iYlYjU

Siegfried: https://youtu.be/SCbKR96jtNg

 

Götterdämmerung: https://youtu.be/2TwFZgYVid4

 

[nanushka]

A Figaro from Glyndebourne (available until May 31):

https://youtu.be/kOqn3XW737E

 

Edited May 27, 2020 by nanushka

[Helene]

Until midnight (PDT) tonight, Sunday, June 14, San Francisco Opera is streaming Il Trittico, with Patricia Racette in the three leads, and Paolo Gavanelli as Michele in Il Tabarro and Gianni Schicchi.

 

https://sfopera.com/opera-is-on/streaming/

[nanushka]

5 minutes ago, Helene said:

Until midnight (PDT) tonight, Sunday, June 14, San Francisco Opera is streaming Il Trittico, with Patricia Racette in the three leads, and Paolo Gavanelli as Michele in Il Tabarro and Gianni Schicchi.

There's also currently a Trittico from ROH, available until June 19:

 

[pherank]

The Met Opera Tries to Find Paying Customers in a Pandemic

On Saturday, Jonas Kaufmann was first in a series of 12 livestreamed recitals featuring Met stars. Tickets are $20.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/19/arts/music/met-opera-jonas-kaufmann.html

"The classical music and opera offerings this spring and summer have mostly been free — and tremendously gratifying. But as cancellations continue into the fall, and beyond, organizations have worried that listeners will start taking free performances for granted."

Edited July 19, 2020 by pherank

[nanushka]

Has anyone seen the Kaufmann recital? $20 feels high to me for recital streams, though it sounds like the quality should be good. I wonder if they wouldn't end up making more in the end if they charged $10-15 each, though.

Quote

Tickets are $20, roughly the price of the Met’s Live in HD movie-theater transmissions.

I can't help thinking, "But it's just a recital..." Why charge approximately the same as for a live HD transmission of a staged opera, with movie-theater sound?

Edited July 19, 2020 by nanushka

[Helene]

It costs us ~$25 plus tax for a Live in HD here.  If you go to the cinema in downtown Seattle, you're also looking at a likely long ride on transit on the weekend schedule or substantial parking costs in the underground garage of the mall where it plays.  They also start at 10am Pacific Time, which is the same as the virtual ones, but my commute, anyway, is a lot shorter  .  (Although, the downtown cinema finally started to offer seat selection, which means not having to get there an hour early to avoid the first five-six rows too close to the screen.)

I missed the fact that the programs are on the Met website under "Learn More," and thought it would be like the (for my taste) schmaltzy offerings in other "Sing from Home" streams, but, instead, he sang a dozen greatest hit arias:

https://metstarslive.brightcove-services.com/

and they are schedule from venues that are, at least scheduled to be, not people's living rooms, which means I might go in and buy it: you can buy in on an on demand basis for up to 12 days after the recital date, if you want to wait for reviews.

Programs are up for the first four recitals through August.

Of course, venues are subject to change, depending on how the pandemic plays out.

 

[volcanohunter]

Streams can, theoretically, be quite economical if they are watched by a group of people, so the $20 becomes $10, $6.67 or $5 per person. In the past I was rather reluctant to shell out for Vienna State Opera streams unless I knew others would be at home to watch with me. Incidentally, Vienna's paid streaming seasons typically include a few solo recitals by star singers.

[volcanohunter]

On 7/19/2020 at 3:56 PM, Helene said:

...you can buy in on an on demand basis for up to 12 days after the recital date, if you want to wait for reviews.

As it happens, there are reviews of Kaufmann's recital, including a clip the Met posted.

https://observer.com/2020/07/jonas-kaufmann-metropolitan-opera-recital-series-review/

[Kathleen O'Connell]

Is this where we put Opera?

Not covid-19 motivated streaming, but free streaming nonetheless: OperaVision, sponsored by the EU and under the editorial supervision of Opera Europa, the European association of opera companies and festivals.

These are well-produced videos of live performances from a variety of European opera houses and festivals. The videos are available for viewing for between three to six months after they've been posted. They are subtitled and come with some nice ancillary materials. There are some popular favorites—e.g., Tosca or The Marriage of Figaro—but many, many more less well known and / or infrequently performed works, such as Frank Martin's version of the Tristan and Isolde story Le Vin herbé or Monteverdi's Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria. 

Right now I'm working my way through Mozart's Lucio Silla in a performance at Brussels' La Monnaie. Yeah, the production is vaguely eurotrashy (it's La Monnaie after all), but it features the very wonderful mezzo Anna Bonitatibus as Cecilio, and is worth it for that alone.

A few of the operas on offer come down in a few of days (Halévy's La Juive, Korngold's Violanta) so if you are interested in either, don't delay. Note: the dates are shown as they are in Europe and elsewhere: day-month-year. 

PS: OperaVision is where Close, posted a few messages above, is from

[nanushka]

Wow, thanks so much for the tip, @Kathleen O'Connell! I'm Chromecasting to my TV right now and starting to explore these offerings.

[Helene]

This is such a treasure trove!  I watched a lot of the productions from Belgium when they were up on the company sites, and I loved a lot of what I saw.  I look forward to listening my way through the others I haven't seen.

[nanushka]

1 hour ago, Helene said:

This is such a treasure trove!  I watched a lot of the productions from Belgium when they were up on the company sites, and I loved a lot of what I saw.  I look forward to listening my way through the others I haven't seen.

If you notice anything on the site that you’ve seen and particularly recommend, please let us know! Definitely a lot here.

[Helene]

I'm a great fan of Corinne Winters, and she sings Rachel in La Juive, which is rarely performed. (Unfortunately, her Melisande from Zurich isn't available through Operavision.)  I listened to Parsifal while I was working, and really liked Stefan Kocan's Gurnemanz and Erin Caves' Parsifal.  Kocan  has sung in Met Live in HD performances, but I hadn't heard Caves before. From the intermittent glances I took, there were lots of chairs.  I also like the Tristan, even if I was only familiar with Selig, who sang King Marke.  

I'd never heard Mozart's Lucio Silla until finding it on the La Scala site, and then, soon after, La Monnaie made it available, and that is on the Operavision site.      Anna Bonitatibus is a wonderful singer.

[nanushka]

Thanks, @Helene, will definitely check those out.

I’ve loved listening to the 2003 La Juive with Shicoff et al through Met On Demand.

[Kathleen O'Connell]

More out-of-the-ordinary opera, this time from Bard College's Fisher Center Upstreaming project. The Bard Music Festival and Summerscape programs are always inventive and very well produced. (It helps when your college president—in this case Leon Botstein—is also a very well-regarded conductor and musicologist.)

Richard Strauss - Die Liebe der Danae

Antonin Dvořák - Dimitrij

Emmanuel Chabrier - Le roi malgré lui

Ethel Smyth - The Wreckers

Carl Maria von Weber -  Euryanthe

Sergey Taneyev - Oresteia

Anton Rubinstein - Demon

Erich Wolfgang Korngold - The Miracle Of Heliane

All well-produced video, with subtitles and downloadable programs. Upstreaming's non-opera offerings are worth exploring, too, including choreography by Beth Gill, Tere O'Connor, and Pam Tanowitz. I don't know how long these programs will remain online.

[Helene]

That you so much @Kathleen O'Connell-- I didn't know about these.

[Helene]

The Queen of Spades from the Stanislavsky is superb.  I just finished listening -- I usually listen more than watch -- and I'm going to play it again tomorrow.

[volcanohunter]

The Vienna State Opera's streaming service is now located at https://play.wiener-staatsoper.at and it appears that the streams will be free of charge this season. The e-mail I received read:

Quote

Starting with the 2020/2021 season, live performances of Wiener Staatsoper will be accessible free of charge at the Wiener Staatsoper website (play.wiener-staatsoper.at) and on updated apps for Apple, Android, and Amazon Fire TV devices.

Registration is still required, but the site is no longer selling subscriptions or pay-per-view operas. I'm guessing that the choice of multiple start times within a 72-hour window will not be available.

In any case, we'll see for sure tomorrow, September 11th during the stream of Elektra at 8 pm CET (2 pm Eastern.) And I apologize profusely in advance if I'm leading you on a wild goose chase.

[Helene]

Thank you so much, @volcanohunter!  I was wondering why the subscription options weren't available:  I was planning to get a paid, monthly subscription as soon as the new season began.  I, too, wondered if we'd have access to the vault, whether for 72 hours or for a shorter period. 

For anyone who didn't watch and is wondering, this Spring and Summer, there was a different program almost daily -- I think they missed maybe five days over many months -- with two on Saturday, the second a children's program, and they were available until the next day's.  

 

[volcanohunter]

30 minutes ago, Helene said:

I was planning to get a paid, monthly subscription as soon as the new season began. 

Yes, so was I! I was so grateful to the Vienna State Opera for those streams, and so happy with the quality of the singing and the playing, that I wanted to repay the theater somehow. Thank you, Lexus and OMV, I guess.

[volcanohunter]

After visiting the main site, I see that Vienna State Opera streams will be available "with 72 hours of catch-up."

[Helene]

1 hour ago, volcanohunter said:

After visiting the main site, I see that Vienna State Opera streams will be available "with 72 hours of catch-up."

Oh, that's excellent!  I tried not to watch the Spring-Summer offerings during the first play period (from the video available time in Vienna until the end of the opera) to put less strain on the streaming platform, so I'll be able to do that again.

[Kathleen O'Connell]

22 hours ago, volcanohunter said:

After visiting the main site, I see that Vienna State Opera streams will be available "with 72 hours of catch-up."

That is great news! I'm rarely in a position to consume a live stream from start to finish, so being able to dip in and out over the course of a few days is a real gift.

 

[volcanohunter]

There is a choice of subtitles in eight languages in the lower right-hand corner.

https://play.wiener-staatsoper.at/event/6d3748c2-4a9c-4470-bd92-596b44762c6b

The audience was somewhat separated, with an empty seat between groups of viewers. The pre-show announcement included a reminder that although Austrian law no longer requires the wearing of masks, they would help keep both wearers and those around them safe. The orchestra pit was packed, no one there was wearing a mask, and there weren't any sort of barriers around the wind and brass players. The production on stage also took place without any kind of distancing measures. But I assume the theater has a testing regimen for its employees.