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The Arts Intel Report

A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler

Nightly Met Opera Streams

Apr 1 – Dec 30, 2020
30 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023, USA

Though Peter Gelb, general director of the Metropolitan Opera since 2006, did not invent live opera onscreen, he certainly opened the floodgates. Now that the coronavirus has shut down opera houses worldwide, the Met has charged to the rescue of fans everywhere with free Live in HD reruns on metopera.org (one per evening, available for 23 hours). The formula at first seemed to be All Warhorses, All the Time, led by the glamorous likes of Anna Netrebko, Diana Damrau, Juan Diego Flórez, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, and Quinn Kelsey. Then, for a while, the mix included an occasional Golden Oldies, not always so hot cinematically but vocally and dramatically on fire. Lately, we’re back to all-recent fare, in weeklong, thematic blocks. The 20th-century classics starting August 31 and the All French series from September 7 consist entirely of material shot within the last 12 years. —M.G.