The Wagner Journal
Better on the Big Screen: Wayne Gooding reflects on the role of technology in the Met’s new ‘Rheingold’
Better on the Big Screen: Wayne Gooding reflects on the role of technology in the Met’s new ‘Rheingold’
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Review of Das Rheingold, directed Lepage, conducted Levine, New York Met, 2010.
March 2011, Volume 5, Number 1, 82–7.
This is a tale of two performances of the Metropolitan Opera’s new production of Das Rheingold: one experienced live from the Grand Tier of the Lincoln Center theatre (30 September), the other also live, but experienced virtually, about 345 miles from the stage on a Cineplex movie screen in Toronto (9 October). I make the bald distinction at the outset because Met General Manager Peter Gelb’s drive to democratise opera-going over the past five years – with the Live in HD movie transmissions as his flagship initiative – raises certain issues about the proper boundaries for a discussion of live opera.