Full disclosure: I am an opera novice. I was lured in by Canadian Opera Company productions directed by cinema luminati – Atom Egoyan, Francois Gerard, Robert LePage – and then I bought season tickets, as it seemed to me the best entertainment value going. But with a few exceptions such as La Bohème and Salome, I’m seeing every opera for the first time; and I have learned that there are lots of them.

When “Metropolitan Opera: Live in HD” performances began transmitting via satellite into movie theaters in 2006, I was in the front seats for the whole season. I have to confess I became an opera buff at this point, meaning that term precisely in the pejorative. In cinema, there are many levels of cinephilia, most of which were, at least until recently, despised by film academics. Yet even at the lowest echelons, fan-boys – who keep deeply nuanced lists – are held in higher esteem than movie buffs, who are strictly amateurs but imagine themselves to be in the know. I confess to being an opera buff.

At the end of its third season, the Metropolitan Opera HD satellite transmissions were described as “the most significant development in opera since the supertitle.” With multiple cameras in play, experienced filmmakers and television directors at the helm, live interviews and behind the scenes glimpses, the transmissions offer much more than simple documentation of performances. The Los Angeles Times went so far as to call the experiment of merging film with live performances “a new art form.”

Modes of Spectatorship

Rather than agreeing on a new art form, I will argue in the first instance that these live HD transmissions are creating a new breed of opera spectators. This in itself has elicited outrage from opera purists who, in addition to repudiating the sonaural amplification and cinematization of opera, often object vigorously to the attempts at democratization of an art form that – at least in the 20th century – has been associated with the cultured and moneyed classes. Opera is the last art form that is considered an elite taste, as both the learning curve and the sticker price are precipitous.