La Scala’s viewers can now be wherever.
The opera home in Milan is sharing choose performances on-line by way of LaScalaTv, a platform that began streaming in February. Its first dwell providing was a broadcast of Verdi’s opera “I Vespri siciliani,” performed by Fabio Luisi and that includes such soloists as Marina Rebeka and Luca Micheletti.
The program additionally consists of concert events and ballets. On May 11, Alberto Malazzi conducts “Petite Messe Solennelle” by Rossini, to commemorate the anniversary of La Scala’s restoration and reopening after World War II. The ballet “Romeo and Juliet” by Sergei Prokofiev takes the display screen to choreography by Kenneth MacMillan on June 28.
The on-demand library additionally consists of performances for kids, beginning with a staged concert based mostly on carnival celebrations known as “Lalla & Skali and … the Enchanted Mask.”
The platform is a part of a wider effort to modernize La Scala’s infrastructure, together with an intensive instructional outreach program utilizing the know-how and plans for subtitles on seat backs.
Dominique Meyer, the theater’s present creative director and chief govt, stated that technological advances in recent times had made it simpler for an opera home to widen its attain.
“It is an actual leap,” he stated, recalling the difficulties he confronted in 2013 when beginning a platform for the Vienna State Opera throughout his tenure there. “Most folks have a quicker web connection, which is extraordinarily necessary when viewers need to watch a stream in 4K.”
The gear accessible for in-house operations has additionally superior quickly. Small, robotic cameras can seize performances at midnight with out necessitating modifications of sunshine, leaving on-site viewers undisturbed. And microphones can simply transmit high quality sound.
Performances on LaScalaTelevision can be found in both extremely excessive definition or excessive definition. The most costly providing, a dwell program on the highest decision, prices 11.90 euros (about $13), whereas a youngsters’s program on the decrease decision prices €2.90. The audio monitor is uniformly transmitted in AAC, a compression format of a better grade than MP3.
Mr. Meyer has prioritized a large view of the stage. “It was necessary to me to respect a sure distance,” he stated. “One doesn’t want close-ups that present the sweat on the face of Gilda on the finish of ‘Rigoletto.’”
He additionally needs to seize dance performances at a wholesome distance. “If you come too shut, it seems just like the dancer’s head is about to hit the highest of the display screen,” he stated. “A precept of the entire challenge was that there wouldn’t be too many cuts, and that the viewer would have the freedom to focus the place she or he pleases.”
Intermissions present glimpses backstage and details about La Scala’s historical past. Recent choices have included a tour of the theater’s museum, residence to such treasures as a manuscript web page from Verdi’s “Nabucco” and a portrait of the soprano Maria Callas.
Mr. Meyer stated that the home had simply scratched the floor of the chances and that “there was lots to inform,” citing “the rehearsals, what occurs behind the scenes, the [costume and set] workshops.”
Of central significance is bringing a few of these tales to youthful viewers. The theater has began by making a community of 200 faculties in Italy to convey college students into contact with opera.
For instance, a dwell rehearsal of Puccini’s “La Bohème” was just lately adopted by a livestream of the efficiency itself. A documentary about Bellini’s “I Capuleti e i Montecchi” was mixed with an on-demand viewing of the opera itself. This September will convey the primary ballet program, revolving round Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake.”
The home can also be teaming up with RAI, Italy’s state broadcaster, to share footage from the Nineteen Seventies and ’80s, together with performances underneath the conductors Claudio Abbado and Riccardo Muti. The principal sponsor of LaScalaTelevision is the financial institution Intesa Sanpaolo, and the Cariplo Foundation is supporting the dissemination of content material to colleges.
“We introduced in about €40.5 million in sponsorship income final season,” Mr. Meyer stated. “That is big in Europe. All these initiatives are being financed.”
In the theater, subtitles might be put in this summer season on the backs of chairs with translations in Italian, English, French, German and Spanish, utilizing the identical software program because the streaming platform (ultimately there might be eight languages). On May 29, La Scala unveils its new web site — which features a digital journal — coinciding with its presentation of the 2023-24 season.
Italian viewers to this point make up half the streaming service’s viewers. Another fourth comes from different European nations. Outside Europe, the best numbers are presently within the United States and Russia.
In-house, Mr. Meyer stated, La Scala has repeatedly offered out this season. “We in fact can’t create extra seats,” he stated. “This know-how permits us to increase our viewers, additionally to youngsters.”
Content Source: www.nytimes.com