As we’re increasingly feeling the weight of halting our engagement in activities outside of the home in an effort to curb the rampant spread of the Coronavirus, here’s a crazy list of programmes to follow from home, thanks to the magic of streaming, live or on-demand. And, as art isn’t just entertainment (or, certainly not the art we’re involved in), take a look, pick a few to try out, and who knows, you might even discover something you didn’t know about this vast internal world we call ‘the arts’!
Here’s just to name a few -
From Russia
Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre:
Revel in the genius of Russian artistic excellence, with
6 of its most popular productions made available to us, dubbed ‘the Golden Collection’ will be available on its Youtube channel - Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Nutcracker. Honestly, I haven’t found them, but to be fair, I only gave it about 2 minutes while I got distracted by clicking on other videos… (for example… La fille du pharaon looks AMAZING! I’d love to watch its entirety some day.)
The Theatre also be showing us some the Bolshoi’s most popular productions: The Tsar’s Bride (oops, they did it two days ago now), Marco Spada (a première: April 4), Boris Godunov (April 7) and The Nutcracker (April 10). These upcoming performances will go live at 7pm Moscow time and will be available online for 24 hours.
From Europe:
The Vienna State Opera announces on its website that:
‘‘starting Sunday, 15 March 2020, Wiener Staatsoper will broadcast recordings of previous opera and ballet performances daily via its streaming platform www.staatsoperlive.com – worldwide and [several] free of charge’’. After a quick registration on its sleek livestream page, a detailed calendar is immediately available, elaborating the available programmes until the end of June. The programmed streaming for the month of April comprise of past productions of some of the great classics - L’Elisir d’amour, Le Nozze di Figaro, Cinderella , La Bohème, Elektra, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Ariodante, Parsifal, etc.
Paid viewing is also possible for certain productions, with prices start from 14 Euro per event, or 16.90 Euro per monthly subscription, if I’ve understood correctly… considering that entrance to an actual opera production in Geneva would easily cost double for audience members without a student discount, I’d say it’s a steal. Plus, you can cuddle up in your PJ’s with a glass of wine in hand and enjoy the production from home… what more could you want?
NB: televised programmes remain available only for 24 hours, so take a look to see if something catches your eye, before it’s taken down!
Bavarian State Opera in Munich states:
‘After the cancellation of all performances at the Bayerische Staatsoper from March 11 to April 19, we provide individual performances as live streams on www.staatsoper.tv and as video-on-demand.
Programme includes: Parsifal, Lucia di Lammermoor, Il Trovatore, etc as well as its weekly ‘Monday Concert’ series… and can be streamed directly from their website without account registration
Opera Europa, the professional association of opera companies and festivals in Europe, is happy to participate!
The first thing I clicked on at the production viewing platform, OperaVision, turned out to be Alceste from the legendary Teatro La Fenice in Venice!!! I might have passed by this historical opera house on my one trip there, but never entered. It airs this evening, and I might tune in just to see how the theatre looks like from the inside. And then, perhaps, allow myself to be transported by composer Gluck’s mastery of melody. Next up, Guillaume Tell on the 7th of April.
The Paris Opera, according to Vogue Magazine,
‘will be putting its most beautiful shows from its archives online free of charge. From Don Giovanni to Swan Lake and The Tales of Hoffmann, there are many great classics to see or rediscover from home’
Next up on their programme: The Barber of Seville, for the entire week April 6-12.
More information on their website here
The Finnish National Opera and Ballet:
invites us to their online platform, Stage24, to browse their rich programme offering. Did you know, for example, that the Little Mermaid has been staged as a ballet production? (Worth noting, though, that it’s also narrated in Finnish, no subtitles, but it doesn’t really matter, given it’s a ballet!)
From the UK
The Royal Opera House announces that
raising its virtual curtains to the ‘culturally curious’ with weekly opera and ballet productions every Friday
These include: Acis and Galatea (April 3), Cosi’ fan’ tutte (April 10), etc.
Opera North
has made the entire Wagner Ring Cycle (cue Norse mythology + Lord of the Rings) available to us mortal beings!!! Many things to criticise about aesthetic choices, but, can we just stop and admire the fact that someone actually offered it up for free viewing? Respect.
… And here’s a little palate-cleanser for anyone wanting a little change from this immense list:
National Theater Live
is offering live-captured plays including Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, Treasure Island, Jane Eyre. Beginning on April 2, audiences can watch a number of NT Live’s live-captured productions for free via the National Theatre’s YouTube channel. Every Thursday at 7pm UK time, a production filmed in front of an audience in the theatre will be streamed and made available for a week.
There’s so much to discover that there’s no time to complain of boredom being stuck at home!
Happy viewing, STAY SAFE, and don’t forget that we WILL get out of this eventually, so keep working your violin, and we’ll catch up in person, hopefully soon!
XO. Cheryl.
do what you love.. and preferably with people (or animals) you love!!!
