Saturday, January 16, 2010

Miserable day at the Opera.


Pre_Performance Crowds, originally uploaded by Trish Mayo.

Up early this morning and on the road for Fredericton, a three hour drive, to attend another of the live in HD Opera performances from the New York Metropolitan Opera. I've been attending them quite regularly for the past two years. The broadcasts are at the large movie theater in Fredericton, one of those places with numerous screens and they always show the opera in theater one which is the largest. I was there last Saturday for Der Rosenkavalier and for the first time I had to sit near the front and at the start of the performance there were not very many empty seats, less than 20. Well today was Carmen, I arrived an hour and a half early and went to the automated ticket machine to get my ticket and the screen said SOLD OUT . How rude. I went over and spoke to one of the ticket sellers to see if there was any point in waiting for performance time to see if there was a seat available, in case some one didn't show up and she said sorry we are not allowed to resell or fill those seats. Bummer. I haven't been buying my tickets in advance because of the possibility of a snow storm this time of year and not being able to get to Fredericton.

Went to Chapters and picked-up a couple more books to read on my trip, backpack is getting heavier every day mostly with books but I can discard those at gites after I read them. Nothing else to do but turn around and come back home. I always listen to CBC Radio 2 while driving and every Saturday at 2 PM is Saturday afternoon at the Opera which sometimes is a live Met performance and other times is a recorded broadcast from some other large opera house. A few minutes before 2 PM the announcer says today's broadcast is Carmen live from the Met, BRAVO !! A few minutes later the same announcer apologizes and says we have lost the feed from the Met but we have Carmen cued up in the CD player and will start it now and return to the live broadcast if we are able to restore the feed. The entire first act was a recording at the end of act one they restored contact and continued on with the live performance. At the intermission after act two I realized this is the same satellite feed that we get in the movie theater the singers are being interviewed back stage and you can hear the stage hands setting up for the next act. Now I wonder if I had been in the theater would I have seen act one or did they loose the transmission too. In which case most people would have left and asked for a refund.






The Metropolitan Opera Association of New York City, founded in April 1880, is a major presenter of all types of opera including Grand Opera. Peter Gelb is the company's general manager. The music... more
Building Function: Opera House
Contained by: New York City