I'm glad I'm not the only one

On this blog more than a year ago, I expressed skepticism about the Met's plan for in theater HD telecasts of movies. They had been tried before on other occasions and I didn't think they'd have much impact.

Boy was I wrong.

But I wasn't the only one. It was nice to see that Terry Teachout and I were ofsimilar mind. Both of us are eating crow at the moment.

I became an enthusiast early on and was excited at the prospect of new audiences for the opera. As Terry comments, that hasn't quite panned out. At least at the one's I've attended, it's been the same people that I see at the opera house. With the ability to purchase tickets in advance, all of them were snapped up by our regular subscribers.

That is disappointing. I don't begrudge them the opportunity to buy their tickets in advance, and it certainly helped the Met's success, but it has left little chance for last minute, walk-up sales by younger patrons. I think that this is a non-threatening environment for newbies to dip their toe in the water, at (generally) a lower cost than in an opera house and in a comfortable familiar place.

It's a shame that there are no tickets left for them and that the audiences are the same ones that are in the opera house. It's my hope that the Met and National Cinemedia will expand and present more opportunities. Perhaps more showings of the Encore (taped) telecasts would be a possibility.

Let's not miss an opportunity here.