Over the past 16 years, Metropolitan Opera has built a profitable business by broadcasting operas live to cinemas around the world. Masterpieces such as “The Magic Flute” and “Madame Butterfly” have captivated millions of audiences.
Now the company hopes to build on that success: On Monday, The Met will be showing some operas live for customers who live far from the theaters where the productions are shown. Announced that it will start live streaming directly to the room.
The service, called “The Met: Live at Home,” is an attempt by the company to expand opera audiences as it grapples with the financial challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic and years of declining box office receipts. is part of the efforts of .
Met general manager Peter Gelb said in a statement: mission in Antarctica. ”
The service is available in the United States and Canada to customers who live far from the theaters that air the Met’s “Live in HD” series of operas each season. Exact distance varies by market. It will also provide nationwide access in 170 countries and territories where the Met does not offer live broadcasts. Depending on your location, streaming each opera costs $10 or $20. Viewers can watch the opera as many times as they like within the seven-day window.
The Met is one of many cultural institutions experimenting with live streaming. Live streaming has become a popular way to stay connected with audiences during the pandemic, when in-person performances have been curtailed. The San Francisco Opera last year began broadcasting select performances live for $27.50.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s cinema program began in 2006 and, prior to the pandemic, generated about $18 million in net income for the Met each year.
New streaming services offer the potential to eat away at some of those sales, but Gelb said using technology to limit geographic reach could mitigate that risk. says. He said the company has no plans to phase out the show in movie theaters, having sold nearly 30 million tickets and is currently available in about 2,000 movie theaters in 50 countries.
“At this point, I don’t want to replace the cinema experience,” he said. “We want to increase that.”
The streaming service will be available from October 22, when the MET begins airing the film. (Ten of his films will air this season.) The first performance is Luigi Cherubini’s “Medea,” which opened the Met season last week.