As New York Times reports, the Metropolitan Opera has over the past 16 years built a lucrative business around broadcasting operas live into movie theatres around the world, attracting an audience of millions for classics like “The Magic Flute” and “Madama Butterfly.”
The company has now decided to expand that project, as it just announced that it would begin live streaming some operas directly into living rooms for customers who live far from cinemas that broadcast its productions.
The service, called “The Met: Live at Home,” is part of the company’s efforts to expand the audience for opera, at a time when it is grappling with financial challenges brought on by the coronavirus pandemic as well as longstanding box-office declines.
Peter Gelb, the Met’s general manager, said in a statement, “[w]e wanted to make our live performances available to people who don’t have ready access to the movie theatres that carry the Met, whether you reside in the mountains of Montana or on assignment in Antarctica.”
The service will be available in the United States and Canada to customers who live at a distance from movie theatres that broadcast the Met’s “Live in HD” series of operas each season; the exact distance will vary depending on the market. It will also be accessible nationwide in another 170 countries and territories where the Met does not offer live transmissions. Depending on the location, each opera will cost $10 or $20 to stream; viewers can watch the operas an unlimited number of times during a seven-day window.
