MET On Demand Skips Popular Streaming Providers For Roku

Opera On Demand: A snapshot of the MET Roku channel

Rather than joining powerful on-demand Internet streaming media provider Netflix, which has 26 million subscribers worldwide and is available to viewers in North America, Australia, New Zealand, South America, and parts of Europe (Denmark, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Ireland and United Kingdom), the Metropolitan Opera has decided to create their own subscription service channel on Roku. Typically Netflix partners with content providers to license streaming rights for movies or television shows. Perhaps the blockbuster company had no interest in negotiating with the MET for their content? Or maybe the opera company thought their revenue stream could potentially be higher going their own route? It's not clear what the motivation might be in choosing to go with Roku. Users must first purchase a Roku plaer. Three options of players are available: Roku 1 (Basic Player) - $49.99; Roku 2 (Lightning Fast Performance) - $69.99; and Roku 3 (Fully Loaded) - $99.99. The second step will be to pay the $14.99/month subscriber fee for the MET Opera on Demand channel. Roku recommends a minimum download speed of 3.0 Mbps for HD content from your cable service to get optimum quality when viewing streams. The Roku Streaming Player does give full access to free channels such as AthiestTV, Crackle, Jewelry Television, and YouTube. Other premium channels like Netflix, Hulu Plus, and Vudu must be paid for separately. "Met Opera on Demand delivers instant streaming of more than 550 full-length Metropolitan Opera performances on

Sotto Voce: Metropolitan Opera Launches New Website With A Whisper

The Metropolitan Opera has redesigned their website with no fanfare or press release. The old splash page existed for nearly a decade with only minor cosmetic changes including the addition of flash for advertising current or upcoming shows via rotating photos, as well as news items on a ticker that scrolled horizontally. With the new site, users experience a bit of lag in loading time due to the full-screen video playing on the landing page (currently the Die Fledermaus production from the 2013-14 season) and the high resolution photos used for the next two screens scrolling down. Subsequent screens look similar to a blogspot layout with 24-point text font size. In the previous incarnation, social

media links (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) existed prominently at the top. Makes sense for a company wanting to be relevant to the younger generation. Where are the links for its social media outlets now? At the very bottom of the site. If you are adventurous enough to find them, you will see one of the coolest features on the site: a miniature Rolex keeping your computer's time. Sponsorship never looked so good. See photos of the old websites dating back to 1997, as well as more photos of the new MET site, after the jump. 

Cleveland Orchestra Animates "The Cunning Little Vixen" With CGI

"Long before summer blockbuster films dazzled us with CGI-enhanced superheroes and villains, audiences got their dose of spectacle at the local opera house, where lavishly costumed singers have walked through monumental sets for centuries. Now, operatic excess and computer-generated imagery are meeting on an Ohio stage as the Cleveland Orchestra reanimates Czech composer Leos Janácek's 1924 opera, The Cunning Little Vixen. In the opening scene, the vixen spots something she's never seen before — a frog — and asks, 'What is that?' The opera's director, Yuval Sharon, says he can relate. 'I think that's kind of how I first responded to opera when I was a kid: 'What is that weird thing?'' Sharon recalls. 'Sometimes fascination is the best entry point.' Sharon is trying to create some fascination in his production by having the bodies of the fox, the frog, a mosquito and other creatures animated on three giant video screens. The singing comes from actual human beings in animal masks, who stick their heads through portals in one of the screens from backstage. The director says the production design dates back to his childhood — and a summer memory. 'A cardboard cut-out that you see at the beach — where you stick your head through and it looks like your body has become a muscle guy's body, or this woman in a bikini's body — everyone takes delight in that,' Sharon says. 'And I thought that could be the kernel of a really interesting theatrical experience.' The animation allows for cinematic scene changes, but it also addresses a problem Cleveland Orchestra Music Director Franz Welser-Möst has long had with Janácek's 80-year-old opera. 'Every time I have seen a production of this piece, it's a little strange,' Welser-Möst says, 'because you have human beings trying to behave like animals. And it's always close to ridiculous.' The visuals were produced by a Los Angeles animation studio. David Bamberger, who directs the opera program at the Cleveland Institute of Music, notes that opera has long embraced the technology of its day. 'In the 17th century and the 18th century, the stages were very well-equipped with mechanical devices,' Bamberger says, 'so that the gods could descend from the clouds and you could have a very dramatic storm effect, or sinking ships, or whatever.' Bamberger recalls one revealing moment from his time at the New York City Opera. He was directing Mozart's The Magic Flute, in which the lead character endures trials by fire and water, and using lighting effects to pull the illusions off. 'We had an old German production manager who was very experienced in all forms of theater,' Bamberger says. 'I said to him, 'Hans, in Mozart's day, how did they do fire and water?' And he turned to me and said, 'They used fire and water!' Which is one of the reasons that old theaters burned down most of the time.'" [Source] For more information about the performances, click here.  Watch videos of how the animation came to life, after the jump.

Palm Beach Opera Receives OPERA America Grant For Technology

The Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in Palm Beach

"Statistically speaking, the free concert on the West Palm Beach waterfront that Palm Beach Opera staged in December was a rousing success. About 2,500 people turned up to hear soloists and a full chorus and orchestra perform opera favorites and Broadway show-tunes. Around 52 percent had never been to an opera event before. The debut concert was the flagship of the company’s drive to attract new audiences. One of its most innovative features was a mobile-device app that enabled users to access scene-setting information, lyrics and fun facts about the pieces being performed. For the next edition, scheduled Dec. 13 at the Meyer Amphitheatre, the company intends to open a two-way conversation by developing a new app financed by a $30,000 grant from Opera America, a service organization for the opera community. With the new app, audience members can shoot off comments about the show, ask questions and respond to surveys, said Daniel Biaggi, Palm Beach Opera’s general director. Plans call for users to be able to tweet and post to Facebook directly using a hashtag. The company also is 'investigating the cost and feasibility of live feeds from social media within the app so that people would see all their comments go by,' he said. Palm Beach Opera is one of seven companies chosen from 53 applicants to receive a total of $300,000 in grants under the Building Opera Audiences program. The program, now in its second year, is supported by the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation." [Source]