Since January’s article regarding the Lyric Opera’s increasing commitment to collaboration on cultural projects, this trend has continued to resonate throughout the opera world. This January, New York’s Lincoln Center (home to the Metropolitan Opera) announced multiple planned collaborative, fully staged operatic productions with the New York Philharmonic to occur over the next several years.
The announcement shows promise for both parties, affording even greater access to top tier talent as well as world class performance venues. A New York Times article further characterized the benefits, highlighting that is also provides the Met further opportunity to explore modern and contemporary repertory and to champion living composers and new works.
Additionally, financial benefits may be among the synergies realized in this collaborative effort. The Met’s financial struggles have been highlighted in the past year as it received a downgraded credit rating from Moody’s Financial Services and once again used its Chagall paintings as loan collateral. Meanwhile, nearby New York City Opera was narrowly rescued from bankruptcy by investors.
Nevertheless, devoted opera audiences can only hope that these struggles breed innovation. Collaborators may not only realize fiscal benefits of splitting costs and cross-selling but also benefit by sharing artistic visions and media.
Thanks to the generosity of Fathom Events, PN is giving away a pair of tickets to each of the live (11:30AM Sat., Feb.14 ) and encore (6:30PM Wed., Feb. 18) presentations of the Met: Live in HD movie broadcasts of a dual feature of Tchaikovsky’s Iolantaand Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Castle at Regal Cantera 17 in Warrenville. To enter, email emilyriederer@gmail.com. To view dates, times, a complete season schedule, and theater locations near you, visit www.FathomEvents.com.
P.S. I thought this link (www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/blog/great-performances-met-2015-broadcasts/) might be of interest to PN readers since requests for free tickets always far outstrip the supply! The link provides details when all of the Met Live in HD broadcasts will air on local PBS stations this spring. I know it’s not exactly local, but I thought it might be of interest.
