New York's Metropolitan Opera hosted an online concert on Saturday featuring some of the biggest names in opera including Jonas Kaufmann, Anna Netrebko and Renée Fleming. The At-home-Gala was streamed for free but is part of a campaign to save the Met's future amid lockdown measures.
More than 40 stars of the opera world signed up on Saturday for the Met's first ever glitzy gala at home that kicked off in Paris at 7pm.
Leading singers including Diana Damrau and Renée Fleming opened up their living rooms to viewers in a pan-continental living-room soiree, which was live streamed from 15 countries on three continents on the The Metropolitan Opera website.
The Met's General Manager Peter Gelb hosted the online experience from his home in New York and said he hoped the concert would give an “operatic uplift to our audiences, as well as for our singers, who are eager to connect with their fans.”
Fellow co-host music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin took care of the instrumental side of things from Montreal and admitted that part of the event was pre-recorded.
"It would have been too complicated to do it live," Nézet-Séguin told French weekly Le Point.
In the end, the orchestral accompaniment was recorded separately.
Protect future
"I sent a video of me conducting the music without the sound to each artist, and the orchestra and choir played their parts while watching me from afar. In the end, the result was more than satisfactory," he said.
However, the singers' performances that included works by Mozart, Verdi and Donizetti, was live and relayed in real time from their laptops and transmitted via Skype, as they self-isolate across the globe.
The Metropolitan Opera has been closed since 11 March due to the coronavirus lockdown but the company is striving to keep in touch with audiences.
Saturday's At-Home Gala, although free, is part of the Met's The Voice Must Be Heard fundraising campaign to protect the company's future.
After the live event, the At-Home Gala will be made available for on-demand viewing on the Met website until 11.30pm in Paris, Sunday 26 April.
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