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The 2006–07 season has been one of excitement and change—and that's thanks largely to a number of new media ventures aimed at making opera accessible to the widest possible audience. The Met's use of the latest technology means fans of the Saturday broadcasts, aired over the Toll Brothers–Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network, have more opportunities than ever to watch and listen to what's happening at the Met.
The global success of Metropolitan Opera: Live in HD, our heralded series of Saturday matinee performances transmitted live in high definition into movie theaters in the United States, Canada, and Europe, is one of the most thrilling of the new developments. Reporting on the groundbreaking HD broadcasts, The Los Angeles Times proclaimed, "The Met's experiment of merging film with performance has created a new art form." The transmissions are enhanced by gripping live intermission features: at the end of the first act of our Eugene Onegin broadcast, for example, soprano Renée Fleming could be seen wiping away tears as she was interviewed by Beverly Sills in the wings moments after having her heart broken onstage as Tatiana in Tchaikovsky's opera. Garrison Keillor said of the Onegin transmission, which starred Dmitri Hvorostovsky in the title role, "It simply was the most moving thing I've seen at the movies in a very long time. Mr. Hvorostovsky is tall, cool, handsome and everything that Elvis was hoping to be, and Miss Fleming's bare left shoulder is more erotic than Madonna naked." Audiences in movie theaters from Tromso, Norway, to Boise, Idaho, and beyond were witness to the unprecedented onscreen operatic excitement. For details on "Live in HD," click here.
Metropolitan Opera Radio on Sirius Satellite Radio channel 85 is the first round–the–clock opera channel on commercial–free satellite radio, offering live performances direct from the stage as well as historic performances culled from our matchless broadcast archive. Select performances are also streamed live at metopera.org.
Saturday matinee broadcast listeners have heard the spectacular live opera performances that have made our 76th broadcast season so distinctive. Week after week, the Met is presenting major star singers like Anna Netrebko in I Puritani, Plácido Domingo in Tan Dun's The First Emperor, and Renée Fleming and Dmitri Hvorostovsky in Eugene Onegin.Still to come are performances featuring Ben Heppner, Deborah Voigt, Juan Diego Flórez, Ruth Ann Swenson and David Daniels, in a mix of beloved favorites and innovative new productions.
This season we've added engaging and innovative new intermission features to the radio broadcasts that bring the vivid backstage action from the opera house to your living room. Live dressing–room interviews with singers and other artists are a staple of the new lineup. A "Backstage Pass" series features audio portraits that illuminate the behind–the–scenes experience at the Met. Star sopranos Sills (pictured above with broadcast host Margaret Juntwait during an HD intermission conversation) and Fleming make regular broadcast appearances, with both divas serving as Special Interviewers during intermissions. And the ever–popular Toll Brothers–Metropolitan Opera Quiz now includes a "Presto Round," email listener polls, and other features.
The Saturday broadcasts are sponsored by Toll Brothers, America's luxury home builder™, with generous long–term support from The Annenberg Foundation and the Vincent A. Stabile Foundation.
As always, we rely on the generous gifts of individual donors around the globe to help save the Met broadcasts, a cultural institution for more than 75 years.
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Dear
Friends of the Met Broadcasts,
I am thrilled that the 76th season of Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcasts is offering an unparalleled opportunity to listen in as a new era begins at the Met. The 2006–07 season marks a time of exciting change inaugurated by the Met's new general manager, Peter Gelb, and that excitement characterizes the Saturday matinees, now aired over the Toll Brothers–Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network.
Those of you who've joined us know that the broadcasts, among the Met's oldest and most venerable institutions, are getting an infusion of energy and style.
As exciting as the new broadcast elements are, it is still important to remember our Save the Met Broadcasts campaign and its efforts to ensure that the series stays on the air without interruption. We are very pleased that Toll Brothers, America's luxury home builder™, continues as the corporate sponsor of our broadcasts, with generous long–term support from The Annenberg Foundation and the Vincent A. Stabile Foundation. And I want to thank the more than 12,000 donors who have given so generously to keep our live broadcasts on the air.
The broadcast season is a magnificent success, so please tune in!
Sincerely,
Beverly Sills
P.S. Learn more about our campaign to Save the Met Broadcasts, as well as the current Met season and membership programs, at metopera.org. |
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Toll Brothers' corporate sponsorship of the Met's Saturday broadcasts helps bring the Met—the company Bob Toll calls "America's opera"—to millions around the world. As does the Vincent A. Stabile Endowment Fund for Broadcast Media, established with a generous $500,000 grant by Antoinette "Toni" Stabile in honor of her late brother. Robert Toll explained to Playbill why losing the weekly broadcasts would be like "taking all the Impressionists out of all the museums." Read more here. |
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Donors
of $250 or more to the Save the Met Broadcast Campaign
receive Sounds
of the Met: Essential Music from the Broadcasts,
an exclusive audio CD compiled from the Met archive including nine previously unreleased performances by Franco Corelli, Renata Tebaldi, Birgit Nilsson, Plácido Domingo, Anna Moffo, Deborah Voigt, and other legendary Met stars. Beverly Sills introduces the CD, which comes with a souvenir booklet, Sounds of the Met: The Complete Met Broadcasts, 1931–2006, a complete chronology of the broadcasts, with listings of singers and conductors. |
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| | | | | • Contact the Save the Met Broadcasts Campaign at 1-800-METOPERA or make
a gift online.
• Honor or remember friends or loved ones. For gifts of $100 or more, the Metropolitan Opera will send a gift acknowledgment to inform the recipient of your tribute. Please complete the Memorial
and Honorary Gifts section on metopera.org or call 1-800-METOPERA for more information.
• Create your own legacy by providing for the Broadcast Campaign fund in your will or through other planned giving options. For individual assistance, in confidence and without obligation, contact the Planned Giving Office at 212-870-7388, or click
here.
The Met will acknowledge your support in print, on
our web site and in the opera house, and also offers
naming opportunities for Major and Leadership gifts.
For information, call 212-870-4505 or email campaign@mail.metopera.org. |
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|  | | | | | |  |  If you would like to register to receive future issues of High Notes, please register here. Registration is free. | | | | |
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