Want to see the premiere of the Metropolitan Opera’s highly anticipated re-staging of Wagner’s “Das Rheingold” — without paying big bucks or putting on a suit?
The performance will be broadcast on seven screens in Times Square, with 2,000 seats available on a first come, first serve basis. The Met will also offer 2,500 reserved seats on the Lincoln Center plaza, where viewers will be able to watch the show on a large screen attached to the exterior of the opera house. Those tickets will be made available at the Met box office beginning Sept. 26 at noon.
Granted, the only way to get the full experience, as it is traditionally understood, is to be in the building. But the Met has defied the naysayers and proven that millions of people will watch opera, live via satellite, on high definition monitors.
In 2006, the company began transmitting live, high-definition opera performances into movie theaters, beginning with six shows in 248 theaters in eight countries. The coming season features 12 operas in 1,500 theaters in 46 countries. Last season, 2.4 million tickets were sold to nine different shows. The Met’s share of the gross was $24 million, and after subtracting production costs and revenue-sharing payments to its unions, the company realized over $8 million in net revenue.