Romeo et Juliette from the Met

The Metropolitan Opera's movie theater broadcast series kicked off today with Romeo et Juliette (I nearly didn't get in due to a ticketing system mix up but that's beside the point). These broadcasts were a total blast last year, and they're just as fun this year. They've got the sound and video reproduction down to a science now, and all the backstage featurettes are also neatly staged as well (though the over planning made for some stilted interviews when there was a more spontaneous air last year).

I was initially concerned that I'd be bored bored bored: Gounod's Romeo is not one of my favorite operas (3-plus hours of bland filler music separating only occasionally lovely duets), and I also saw Netrebko's Juliette at LA Opera a few years ago. She was fine in the duets but the entrance - with the quick, fluttery notes - was, um, alarming. Plus that production was dreary so my memory of her and Romeo the opera wasn't favorable.

Netrebko was magnificent here. The entrance was still her weakest moment, but after the first scene, Juliette's music becomes much more lyrical and slow, music that is much more natural to Netrebko's voice. Her voice became soaring and gorgeous - she sounded magnificent and looked it, too. It was a very pleasing performance all around, and all she had to do was look gorgeous for us to like watching it. Roberto Alagna also did pretty decently today, though he can't match Netrebko's glamour. Today he gave a much more nuanced performance than in the La Scala Aida showing two weeks ago. I wouldn't go so far as to say he and Netrebko had electric chemistry, but they did sound wonderful together. A few other noteworthy performances: Nathan Gunn as a swashbuckling and sexy Mercutio and Isabel Leonard as Stephano.

The production had a colorful Renaissance celestial motif in the design, and it looked very pretty on screen. There were a few striking images, such as cosmic swirling backdrops during the love duets, which lent a melodramatically airy feeling to the love scenes. And when Romeo and Juliet consumate their relationship, its on a bed suspended over the stage, against a backdrop of the Milky Way. What I did like was that there was enough color and stage business to distract me from thinking about how long the opera really is. (Production photos here.)

During scene changes, the movie theater audience was entertained by shots of the backstage area: camera crews lifting scenery, Netrebko bounding around the hallways and making silly faces for the camera, Isabel Leonard going over fight choreography. It was fun to see backstage, though one could argue that it jolted you out of the opera's mood. Wasn't too hard for me personally, though, to switch in and out. I would have been more bored sitting through darkened silence in the auditorium.

It was a very pleasant way to spend a Saturday morning/early afternoon. The broadcasts aren't so novel anymore, so now I feel like I'm just watching a regular performance that happens to be transmitted live. It's cheaper than going to the live opera, certainly. And it's the Met we're talking about here, so it's great to be able to see huge opera stars regularly without actually flying to New York.

Photo by Ken Howard/The Metropolitan Opera.