Voices: Opera opportunity

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October 23, 2009

Anonymous The Joplin Globe Fri Oct 23, 2009, 02:28 PM CDT

Recently, my wife and I sat in a darkened and virtually empty movie theater at Hollywood 14 in Joplin waiting for commencement of a high definition telecast of a performance from the Metropolitan Opera in Lincoln Center in New York City.

That performance was sent out live to over 1,000 different theaters spread over 42 different countries and six different continents, simultaneously. Joplin was one of those theaters.

What followed was one of the most magnificent productions of anything I have ever seen! The opera was Tosca by Puccini. It lasted 3 1/2 hours and the talent, scenery, score, and camera work was mind boggling.

Moreover, during the live intermission period in New York, the cameras took you backstage so you could watch the crews change out the scenery sets which are huge and their resetting is a lesson in choreography and planning all its own.

My wife and I have been fortunate enough to have traveled widely over the world for a good many years and have attended countless memorable events and activities, but let me tell you, I have seen nothing that surpassed, and very few events that even remotely approached, the magnificence of that broadcast.

One of the many things that I am not is an opera buff, but these are bigger-than-life presentations and are simply indescribable.

It is a tragedy that our local theater has apparently chosen not to promote this series in any meaningful way.

The public is missing the opportunity of a lifetime through lack of awareness, and the theater is throwing one away by default.

There are nine live broadcasts like this in this season. They all take place on specific Saturdays at whatever time synchronizes with the New York performance. Plus, if you can’t make the Saturday show there is an encore performance for each opera on a Wednesday night about two weeks later.

The encore performance for Tosca will be Oct. 28.

Leland Browne

Joplin

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