Opera On Film

Opera On Film 03 September 2007
Odeon and Glyndebourne try to reach a new audience for opera by scheduling screenings in Cinemas

A fiery young woman about to marry against her wishes falls in love with a young man she meets on a boat. From this premise Wagner composed Tristan und Isolde, whilst in the following century James Cameron created Titanic. Granted this unlikely pair have little else in common, but the two works illustrate a taste for tear-jerking love stories, dramatic plots and grand gestures that is shared by opera and film alike. Since 1903 when Georges Méliès produced an adaptation of Berlioz’s Faust for Pathé, opera and film have been combined in all sorts of ways.  Films of staged operas, operas produced for film, film in opera, opera in film: the list could go on. 

And now, Glyndebourne Opera and Odeon Cinemas are adding another twist to the tale as the duo brings three critically acclaimed productions to the big screen.  Throughout this autumn, British audiences will be able to enjoy Tristan und Isolde, Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte and one as yet unnamed work in cinemas across Britain for just £7.50.  With screenings in London, Tunbridge Wells, Guildford, Manchester, Brighton, Oxford, Cardiff and Harrogate on 27 September, 26 October and 29 November, it’s off to the local cinema rather than off to the nearest city-with-an-opera-house in order to experience operatic delights.

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Making opera available to a wider audience is the aim of this enterprise. As Glyndebourne Opera explained in a statement released in June this year, “reaching out to new audiences and giving them fresh contact with the operatic art form” is one of their priorities.  Glyndebourne’s move emulates a similar, and so far successful, scheme taking place on the other side of the Atlantic, run by New York’s Metropolitan Opera.  Whereas outreach work and educational projects demystify opera by means of direct involvement, transferring productions from stage to screen makes world-class productions financially and physically accessible. David Pickard, General Director of Glyndebourne, said that “[Odeon cinemas have] the reach, distribution and expertise” needed to achieve their aim.  

But can the magic of the big screen match the magic of a live performance?  Can the intimacy and immediacy of cinema make up for losing the theatre and spectacle of live opera? Gerald Buckle, Digital Development Manager at Odeon Cinemas, highlighted that the productions will be screened in high definition with Dolby Digital sound so that “opera fans will be able to experience the same quality from a live show”.  Perhaps, though, to insist that seeing a filmed opera, even, as in this case, a film of a live opera, is the same as seeing a live opera is to miss the point. Of the Met’s scheme, which relayed live performances to cinemas around America, one music critic went as far as to remark that the “experiment of merging film with live performance has created a new art form”. Such a thought is intriguing. Could the cinema become the opera house of the future?  Philosophizing aside, opera and film are set to embark on yet another voyage together. Let’s just hope that their love affair ends rather less tragically than that of Tristan and Isolde.

Photos:Mike Hoban. 1) Nina Stemme as Isolde and Robert Gambill as Tristan 2) Nina Stemme as Isolde with Katarina Karneus as Brangane. From the recent Glyndebourne Opera production