Festival Preview: The Met Live in HD Summer Festival 2018

The Met Live in HD festival Marx the spot with ten operas and a classic screwball comedy.

by Paul J. Pelkonen

That ain't peanuts: Groucho is open for business in a scene from A Night at the Opera
© 1935 Universal Pictures.

As a celebration of opera (and an opportunity for marketing the Metropolitan Opera to the city at large) you can't beat the Met's Live in HD Film Festival. This eleven-evening free event has become a hallmark of the Peter Gelb era at the Met. It allows the revisiting of old favorites or the experience, for the bold opera novice, of something entierey new.

The Met Al Fresco: Summer Live in HD Festival

A look ahead at next month's Peter Gelb film festival in Lincoln Center Plaza.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Eric Owens in L'Amour de Loin.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2016 the Metropolitan Opera.

The Metropolitan Opera returns to its tradition of showing reruns to an adoring public at Lincoln Center plaza in the late summer. This year the company offers screenings of eight operas plus filmmaker Ingmar Bergman's version of The Magic Flute. Why only eight operas, you ask? Because one of them, Wagner's four hour epic Tristan und Isolde is being split into two nights.

All the screenings will be held on Lincoln Center Plaza, with the 3,000 FREE seats filled on a first-come first-serve basis. Programs and playbills will be provided.

The Met Turns Up the Heat

Summer programming from The Metropolitan Opera.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Thousands watch Elina Garanca and Roberto Alagna in Carmen.
Image © 2011 The Metropolitan Opera.

The Metropolitan Opera is currently in the middle of its summer recital series, with three concerts around New York City next week. Upcoming concerts include appearances in the Bronx's Crotona Park (Tues, July 23)  Clove Lakes Park in Staten Island (July 25), Manhattan's Jackie Robinson Park (July 30) and Socrates Sculpture Park in Queens on Aug. 1.

Occupy Wall Street to "Mic Check" Lincoln Center

General Assembly planned for Josie Robertson Plaza

Occupy Wall Street poster by Lalo Alcarez.
© 2011 by the artist.

Concert, opera, theater, ballet and circus-goers attending a performance at Lincoln Center tonight might want to give themselves extra time on their commute to and from the venues. That, or use the underground tunnels.

The Occupy Wall Street movement is coming to Lincoln Center Plaza. 

The group, which protests economic inequality, has targeted the arts complex in a post on their website, as the site of a General Assembly, the peaceful (but loud) nightly meeting where members of the movement are given the opportunity to speak, amplified by the "people's mic": a repetition of their statement by the assembled crowd.

Tonight's G.A. is planned to take place in conjunction with the Metropolitan Opera's last 2011 performance of Satyagraha, the Philip Glass opera that explores the life of Mohandis K. Gandhi. The Mahatma's non-violent methods are an inspiration to the Occupy Movement.

Mr. Glass is planning to join the General Assembly and speak to the occupiers. Presumably, he will come out after Satyagraha ends, which should be about 11:15.

The choice of venue is also calculated to annoy New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. Mayor Bloomberg, one of the 12 richest men in America, is among the major donors to Lincoln Center.

In November, Mayor Bloomberg personally authorized the NYPD to "evict" the Occupiers' two month old encampment at Zuccotti Park. The action led to citizens, journalists and even a city council member being injured and jailed by the cops. But the clean-out has freed the movement to travel the city and spread ther message.

Another target is  billionaire David H. Koch, the right-wing backer of the Tea Party movement. Mr. Koch recently slapped his name across the former New York State Theater after making a hefty donation to the coffers of the arts center.

If they're blocked from the plaza (as they probably will be, most likely by a combination of Lincoln Center security and NYPD) the Occupiers are planning to stage a hunger strike. According to their website, the strike will continue until they are once more allowed to stage protests in the city's public and privately owned plazas and parks.