Cinematic Opera and the return of 'Culture'

Interesting article in The Independent the other day ('Hold the popcorn! Opera is heading for the multiplex') about a classical music success story.

Cinemas up and down the country have been showing operas, from La Scala and the Met, often live, for a while now. From September, the Royal Opera House will do the same, beaming productions live to cinemas around the world, and Glyndebourne will follow up a hugely successful set of screenings last year with productions from their latest season. Most screenings have been sell-outs. People of all ages seem to appreciate the low prices (although Everyman Cinemas in Hampstead charges £25 - but you do get a sofa to sit on and a glass of champagne!), a relaxed atmosphere and the cinema-quality sound.

Interesting, isn't it? Cinemas, particularly multiplexes, seem these days to only provide popular blockbusters - finding smaller, often European films is becoming almost impossible. Their argument: it simply doesn't pay to show them. And yet here is an art form that is consistently derided as elitist and only for posh people - opera - which is packing them in (at Odeon, Vue, Empire and other multiplexes) on a Sunday afternoon, traditionally a slow time for cinemas. Earlier this year, I wanted to see the Met's Peter Grimes at a cinema in North London but it was sold out! Excuse me?!

It's also interesting in the context of what we've been discussing in the last week or so - the trivialisation of arts and music on BBC television and radio. The executives tell us that classical music is less popular these days (Roger Wright said exactly that on Radio 4, excusing his low audience figures), and yet most major orchestras in the UK are seeing their audiences go up (the LSO can now boast over 90% houses on average), the Proms audience goes up every year, and people are packing cinemas to watch Giulio Cesare!

A telling quote from Chris Millard at the Royal Opera House, on their decision to screen productions in cinemas :

"We couldn't do it before we had the right sound quality. Now everything is filmed in high definition (HD), and shown in 2K (high resolution) digital cinemas, together with surround sound...Negotiating the rights with all the various unions has taken two or three years. But most of the artists see the value of this. They understand they're reaching a new, worldwide audience."

So, they waited until the sound quality was right (at a time when the BBC is putting much of its music performance online only - ahem, Young Musician of the Year - with astoundingly bad sound quality). They put the effort into negotiating with the artists and unions (when the BBC, particularly in past Proms, has simply tried to slip in multi-media clauses into orchestra contracts and hope no-one notices - the reason why a couple of American orchestras refused to appear for a few years). And they realised they had a new audience out there. But, and here's the really important bit, they are not showing highlights of the operas. There is no trivialisation of the genre, no patronising. It's the real deal, a full-blown, complete broadcast of every opera. And people still pack the cinemas.

I think it's fabulous. Click here for Arts Alliance Media, distributors of most of the big-screen operas. They have dates and venue details.

Talking of culture, BBC Two's The Culture Show returns in June for a new run and the channel has been running a flashy trailer (see it here - you may need to register for free). What has hardly been mentioned, least of all by the beeb of course, is that this once 60 minute programme has now been cut in half to 30 minutes and been moved from its Saturday early-evening slot to Tuesday at 10pm. Wow, that's commitment for you. Of course, this kind of schedule move is a classic broadcasting tactic. Put it somewhere no-one knows about, note the low audience figures and bingo - an excuse to bin it.

The trailer, by the way, features responses from celebrities to the question "What is culture?...", ironic since it's a question the programme has never been able to answer itself. I always thought that the show was a terrific opportunity to highlight the rich artistic culture of the UK, the stuff that doesn't get covered anywhere else these days (the sort of thing the much-missed Late Show would have done). Alas, the last few series have been mostly about rock and pop acts, a huge amount of cinema, Russell Brand (who filmed an excellent piece on his Oxford Union speech, but it was bog all to do with culture!) and other subjects covered everywhere else. It lacks focus and confidence. In its new slot, I give it a year.