Madam Butterfly in Times Square

[model_mom]

'Madama Butterfly' Shown in Times Square
Sep 25, 10:24 PM EST source MSN news
The Associated Press
NEW YORK -- Enthusiasts filed into their seats wearing jeans and T-shirts for the Metropolitan Opera's opening night performance.
They sipped from soda cans and chatted on cell phones while taxis zipped by honking occasionally. At dusk, Puccini's "Madama Butterfly" appeared on a large screen above Times Square amid the flickering lights.
The performance was broadcast live Monday from Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts to Times Square, more than 20 blocks south, as part of an effort by the Met to reach a new audience. It was enjoyed under a clear sky from seats lined up on Broadway open to all. Many passers-by took advantage.
"This is a wonderful thing," said Anderson Carton, 45, who had just emerged from a medical conference in Times Square and had not planned to watch an opera. "I've heard about 'Madama Butterfly' all the time; now I can see what it's all about."
The performance also was broadcast in Lincoln Center's Josie Robertson Plaza and on Sirius Satellite Radio. The broadcasts were part of the Met's attempt under new general manager Peter Gelb to bring opera to a broader audience.
Earlier this month, the opera house announced it would transmit six live performances to movie theaters in North America and Europe this season and broadcast more than 100 live over the Internet or on digital radio.
The broadcast of the season's opening night performance of Anthony Minghella's production of "Madama Butterfly" at Times Square was a kind of inaugural — and an unprecedented event for the Met. About 600 seats were set up in the square.
Gelb has expressed concerns that opera is an aging art form. He has said that the broadcasts and other initiatives, including PBS telecasts and possible CD and DVD releases, are an attempt to reach a new and younger audience and nurture a larger base of enthusiasts.
In Times Square, the early reviews were good.

"This is fabulous," said Thomas Thoma, who works in Germany's mission to the United Nations. (Story Continues On Next Page...)
Page 1 of 2 Next

 

[model_mom]

'Madama Butterfly' Shown in Times Square
Sep 25, 10:24 PM EST

(...Story Continued from Previous Page) "Paris and Berlin should do this."
Other members of the audience said they felt that the Met was becoming more accessible.
"The Met used to be this horrendously elite dinosaur," said Greg Emetaz, 28, a filmmaker. "This is a major effort at outreach."
Even the distractions of Times Square were acceptable.
"The noise, the color, that's part of the attraction tonight," Emetaz said.
In the minutes before the performance, the audience members watched images of their counterparts taking their seats in Lincoln Center, many in tuxedos and long dresses. Celebrities at the performance included Jude Law, Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon, Liev Schreiber and Naomi Watts.
An announcer in Times Square asked his more casually dressed audience members to turn their cell phones to silent.
"I don't think that will help here," said Carton, laughing.
Then Met music director James Levine, making his return after an absence last spring due to injury, rose on the big screen to launch into the national anthem ahead of the opera. The audience members in Times Square stood and put their hands on their hearts.
Afterward, they burst into cheers as a woman appeared on the screen in Japanese costume with long flowing ribbons and the music began. And they laughed when a large cement mixer drove loudly across the square and under the screen.
After the curtain calls on stage, the opera's cast came out onto the balcony in front of the Met and received a wild ovation from the crowd that had enjoyed the live telecast in the plaza

 

[model_mom]

Only in New York.....how i would have loved to have been in the audience.