Siriusly

A lot of chatter on opera-l, etc. about the new partnership between Sirius Radio and the Met. A lot of people are excited, not so much about the live broadcast I think, but about the historical ones.

I think that its a smart move for both the Met and Sirius. It will encourage opera audiences to subscribe to Sirius and open up a potential new audience to the Met (especially if Sirius survives the satellite wars). I've been debating subscribing to one of the two U.S. satellite services and this certainly helps me decide between the two. Now I'm just figuring out which hardware device to buy.

Whether long-term this will be successful will, of course, remain to be seen. Will this ultimately replace the Saturday afternoon broadcasts? Are those still viable? That, I think will partially be determined by the success of satellite radio in general. In any case, I think it smart of Gelb, to be on the forefront of new technology and to propogate the Metropolitan Opera name (and product) in as many places as possible.