The Met: Live in HD

The Met: Live in HD

If you see live football on television it doesn't take your appetite away from wanting to go sit in the stadium,' says Julie Borchard-Young. She's explaining the appeal of the Metropolitan Opera's Live in HD - an initiative that has been nothing short of phenomenal, with over 900,000 people in 17 countries witnessing its recent second season, all from the comfort of their local cinema.

Borchard-Young, the Met's director of worldwide HD (high-definition) distribution, continues with her football analogy: 'It's the same kind of model, with a similar kind of benefit of being able to go into the locker room and hear from the players.' The Met: Live in HD has been commended from almost all quarters for the behind-the-scenes action it offers: host soprano Renée Fleming draws insights from fellow opera stars such as Anna Netrebko and Plácido Domingo, while the Guardian's John Wyver recently described its intimate filming as 'exceptional'.

The idea for Live in HD came about when Borchard-Young approached Peter Gelb, the New York company's general director. 'I came from the pop music world and had done some things I thought could be applicable to the opera world. One was a concert featuring David Bowie where we had a live event in London that was broadcast to 88 cinemas in about 20 countries. It inspired me to think that the same principle could apply to the Met Opera stage.'

'Artists can't be everywhere at once and this technology is the next best thing'

The initiative took a year to put together, pushed along by Gelb's vision of making the company's content accessible via all media, physical or otherwise. 'The Met Opera is definitely the first performing arts organisation to do anything of this magnitude and certainly the only one to have screened in a series to movie theatres on a global basis,' adds Borchard-Young. With the Royal Opera House and Milan's La Scala both recently launching their own cinema screening programmes, it appears that Live in HD is just the start of what may become a long-term trend.

Of course, none of this would be possible without the contribution of the artists, both from the Met and its guests. Thankfully, says Borchard-Young, when the concept was originally suggested it was 'enthusiastically embraced'. 'We think the artists are just as interested in being seen by as wide an audience and connecting with the public in really meaningful ways,' she adds. 'Artists can't be everywhere at once and this technology is the next best thing, allowing them to virtually do that.'

Broadcasting a cinema screening around the world, with the same high production values as the opera itself, is a job that requires a team numbering 'in the hundreds', says Borchard-Young: 'A whole entourage descends to capture what goes on. There are three big production trucks parked at the back of the Lincoln Center, a satellite truck and cables galore.'

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