Royal Opera House cinema season launches
The Royal Opera House’s live cinema season 2013-14 got off to a flying start with a live relay of Puccini’s grand oriental fantasy, the opera Turandot. I was at The Mayfair Hotel for the launch and joined in the company of cinema and arts enthusiasts.
It’s easy to think opera and ballet are only for an elite in-crowd, but Music Director, Sir Antonio Pappano, was there, and he has other ideas. He spoke enthusiastically about the forthcoming cinema season. Ten productions of world-class operas and ballets will be beamed to over 1,000 cinemas in 40 countries – that’s a big increase from 2009, when only 12 countries took part. In the UK alone the number of participating cinemas has grown from 45 sites in 2009 to 240 today.
We’re so brainwashed into thinking that only Hollywood films make it to the big screen but at the end of last year, on 13 December 2012, a live relay of The Nutcracker attracted 32,000 people –second only to Skyfall as the highest grossing film that night - proof positive that there’s a growing appetite for high quality culture.
Back at The Mayfair Hotel, Pappano’s enthusiasm bubbled into the crowd. I caught sight of Royal Ballet principal dancers Carlos Acosta and Marianela Nuñez among the throng. They had come to offer their support for the opera evening because they will be appearing in some of the future live ballet relays.
Once the relay began, Pappano made a helpful and interesting introduction onscreen to what we were about to see. Turandot was Puccini’s final opera – he died during its composition so it wasn’t premiered until 1926. It packs a dramatic punch – the story of an ice-cold princess who sets three riddles to every suitor who falls in love with her. If the suitor fails to give the correct answers, he’s executed. If he gets them right, he wins her hand in marriage. Only as in all good drama, it’s not quite as simple as that, because Turandot reneges on the deal.
It’s a feast of colour, drama, action, dance, pageantry and singing. Watching it on screen you can really see the detail, better than if you were part of the theatre audience. Just as if you were at the theatre too, you share in the intervals and mull over each act.
American soprano Lise Lindstrom was making her 100th appearance in the title role in Andrei Serban’s spectacular classic production. She sang Turandot with confidence and the flexibility and power when the big arias demanded it. Her suitor, Calaf, sung by Marco Berti, was in excellent voice and brought presence to the stage. Other notable performances were from Ping, Pang, and Pong and the loyal slave girl, Liù, sung by Eri Nakamura.
When Turandot is finally defeated by Calaf’s refusal to be cowed by her coldness and cruelty, we see every startled glance in her eyes, every line of her frowning forehead as she awakens to his love.
Even in a cinema setting, the effect on the senses was overwhelming. At the end, tweets appeared on screen from people watching in Italy and Russia, instantly making the world seem smaller and somehow, in an anonymous cinema somewhere in Britain, I felt that I was part of it.
It’s easy to think opera and ballet are only for an elite in-crowd, but Music Director, Sir Antonio Pappano, was there, and he has other ideas. He spoke enthusiastically about the forthcoming cinema season. Ten productions of world-class operas and ballets will be beamed to over 1,000 cinemas in 40 countries – that’s a big increase from 2009, when only 12 countries took part. In the UK alone the number of participating cinemas has grown from 45 sites in 2009 to 240 today.
We’re so brainwashed into thinking that only Hollywood films make it to the big screen but at the end of last year, on 13 December 2012, a live relay of The Nutcracker attracted 32,000 people –second only to Skyfall as the highest grossing film that night - proof positive that there’s a growing appetite for high quality culture.
Back at The Mayfair Hotel, Pappano’s enthusiasm bubbled into the crowd. I caught sight of Royal Ballet principal dancers Carlos Acosta and Marianela Nuñez among the throng. They had come to offer their support for the opera evening because they will be appearing in some of the future live ballet relays.
Once the relay began, Pappano made a helpful and interesting introduction onscreen to what we were about to see. Turandot was Puccini’s final opera – he died during its composition so it wasn’t premiered until 1926. It packs a dramatic punch – the story of an ice-cold princess who sets three riddles to every suitor who falls in love with her. If the suitor fails to give the correct answers, he’s executed. If he gets them right, he wins her hand in marriage. Only as in all good drama, it’s not quite as simple as that, because Turandot reneges on the deal.
It’s a feast of colour, drama, action, dance, pageantry and singing. Watching it on screen you can really see the detail, better than if you were part of the theatre audience. Just as if you were at the theatre too, you share in the intervals and mull over each act.
American soprano Lise Lindstrom was making her 100th appearance in the title role in Andrei Serban’s spectacular classic production. She sang Turandot with confidence and the flexibility and power when the big arias demanded it. Her suitor, Calaf, sung by Marco Berti, was in excellent voice and brought presence to the stage. Other notable performances were from Ping, Pang, and Pong and the loyal slave girl, Liù, sung by Eri Nakamura.
When Turandot is finally defeated by Calaf’s refusal to be cowed by her coldness and cruelty, we see every startled glance in her eyes, every line of her frowning forehead as she awakens to his love.
Even in a cinema setting, the effect on the senses was overwhelming. At the end, tweets appeared on screen from people watching in Italy and Russia, instantly making the world seem smaller and somehow, in an anonymous cinema somewhere in Britain, I felt that I was part of it.
- For the complete Live Cinema 2013/14 listing: www.roh.org.uk/cinema
- Next live screening is The Royal Ballet’s Don Quixote on 16 October at 7.30pm - a brand new production by Carlos Acosta
- Five live operas and ballets will have been presented by the time the season concludes on 24 June 2014 with The Royal Opera’s Manon Lescaut