A broadcast of Puccini's opera "Madama Butterfly" on June 22 in Loew Auditorium marked the beginning of the Hopkins Center series entitled "Summer with the Met," which will include Donzietti's "Don Pasquale," Puccini's "Tosca" and Verdi's "Don Carlo."
The Metropolitan Opera in New York City first introduced the broadcasts in 2006 as a way to reach wider audiences, according to manager of film at the Hopkins Center for the Arts Sydney Stowe.
Since 2006, the Metropolitan Opera "Live in HD" program has expanded to over 800 theaters in the United States and over 200 theatres internationally, according to Stowe. The Hopkins Center began to broadcast operas during the program's second series, she said.
"This is a way to reach audiences in a cheaper, more accessible way, in a venue that is more familiar to more people a movie theater," Stowe said.
Last year, the Hopkins Center began presenting encore performances of these operas the day after their live transmissions due to the popularity of the program, Stowe said.
"We found out that people were just as happy to go the next day," she said.
In addition to operas, several plays will also be featured in this summer's lineup. A Broadway production of Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest" by L.A. Theatre Works and Roundabout Theatre Company was broadcasted to a sold-out audience on June 25 and a London National Theatre production of Anton Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard" will play on June 30 in Loew.
During the first year of the National Theatre broadcasts at the Hopkins Center, over 1,500 people attended the plays and the live transmissions continue to sell out, Stowe said.
Advanced technology facilitates these live broadcasts. Several onstage cameras simultaneously capture the performance, the material is then beamed into trucks in the parking lot where it is transmitted to a nearby satellite provider called By Experience HD and finally sent out to theaters, according to Stowe.
Because it is difficult to present shows at the same time as their live performances due to time zone differences, some shows are broadcast as "captured live" performances, meaning they are taped and then re-broadcast exactly as they were originally recorded, Stowe said.
One of the most popular features of the HD broadcasts is the behind-the-scenes material filmed before the show and during intermission, which includes interviews with cast members, she said.
"Audiences would say that this is probably their favorite part," said Stowe. "While audiences at Lincoln Center who pay $275 for a seat go get a little coffee, we get to see fun behind-the-scenes segments."
Several professors have also made use of these live broadcasts for educational purposes. Professor Gretchen Gerzina, chair of the English department, required students taking her Victorian Literature and Culture and 20th Century British Fiction classes to attend last Friday's broadcast of "The Importance of Being Earnest."
"It had great educational value and it's never the same reading a play as seeing it," Gerzina said.
Other Dartmouth students enjoyed the live broadcasts. "I find that the recent movement to film live performances and broadcast them is a fantastic way to spread the cultural wealth of select cities to people everywhere," Max Hunter '13 said.
Many people who are involved in the arts industry are unsure about how these live broadcasts will develop, according to Stowe. She said she is hopeful that the broadcasts will continue successfully expose new audiences to artistic performances.
"It opens up students and community members that wouldn't have gone to the theater to art forms in a more modern way," Stowe said. "Although we're still wrapping our heads around how to present and market these shows, we're excited to be part of this change in keeping the arts fresh and immediate for a student audience."
"Summer with the Met" performances are shown on Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m. in Loew.
