Abstract
The Metropolitan Opera’s series of Live in HD simulcasts and others like it have made possible a subgenre of opera that is distinct from either staged or filmed opera. The simulcast, with its immediacy and accessibility enhanced by instantaneous streaming to movie theaters, reconfigures traditional audiovisual points of view, not only by providing audiences close-ups of characters and intermission interviews with performers but also by offering glimpses of behind-the-scenes music and stagecraft. More than mere halftime entertainment, these documentary-like investigations support multiple storylines woven through gaps in the operatic narrative. Although the two worlds (inside and outside of the storyline) often remain separate, at times they can come together in interesting ways, sparking, I argue, subtle illusions that are only available to the simulcast patrons. An example of this phenomenon can be found in the 2010 Met production of Don Pasquale, which mixes close-ups of pit and stage in a way that triggers inter-storyline references between musicians and characters. Drawing on insights from performance and media studies, this study analyzes music performed by non-characters (or by characters that are temporarily outside of the flow of the narrative) and then draws connections with the in-narrative music making. I show that those connections form more readily because of the very immediacy, liveness, and close-up camera work that the simulcast format offers, resulting in “figments” and “phantoms” at the opera.
Presenters
Shersten JohnsonProfessor, Music, Film & Creative Enterprise, University of St. Thomas, Minnesota, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
New Media, Technology and the Arts
KEYWORDS
Metropolitan Opera, Giovanni, Digital, Media, Mediation, Liveness
