Arts organisations around the world are possibly the hardest hit by lockdown restrictions, and many may not survive. Like our beloved Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, many performing arts companies are live-streaming their performances to empty and silent auditoriums. (With distancing restrictions, will the MSO be able to perform even like that?)
The online explosion in the arts
Aside from helping to keep their operations functioning (think of the importance of orchestras practising together), it give us a chance to watch many of the world's greatest companies in action. Use your googling expertise to find the art galleries, theatre companies, orchestras and dance and opera companies with live streams. I just googled "Art museums live streams" and got more hits than I could watch in a year!
Live streaming is only half of it. Performing arts companies are putting online entire performances from their archives (as is the MSO - go to the above link). For fun I googled "Poland National Opera" and discovered a heap of any-time streams. A check showed English surtitles. So many of these lesser-known companies are extraordinarily innovative in their productions, and their principal performers - whose names are scarcely household - are marvellous.
Tom the Techie's handy hint: You can of course watch any stream on your computer from your Internet browser (Firefox, Chrome, Opera, or whatever Microsoft are currently calling their browser). Aside from googling innovatively, you can click on the tons of links on this and our other blog pages - and follow the Law of Cascading Links!
If you can link your computer via an HDMI cable (pictured, and easy to buy online) to your TV set (all modern sets have HDMI input ports) then you're set for an evening's immersive video. All you need to do is use the input button on your TV's remote (icon - a little TV screen with an arrow going into it) to connect it to that HDMI port. Our TV offers me ports HDMI 1, 2 and 3, and I just cycled through them to find which I'd hooked up to. Audio automatically comes through your TV's speakers - undoubtedly a big improvement on your laptop speakers.
And another hint. If you go to a site (like the New York Met) that tells you the time it's starting a stream, like 7:30 pm their time, just google "7:30 pm New York time to Melbourne time" and you'll be answered. E.g. that's 4:30 am the next day for us!
Any problems? U3A members are welcome to email me at tomprettyhill@gmail.com.
Suggestion: for every full performance you watch, donate them a dollar or two online. They need it, as our culture needs them.
Online mags point the way
Dearly loved Limelight "On with the show" (subtitle: "The Arts at Home") as well as (of course) The Guardian are going out of their way to provide diaries of current and future online events.
Bookmark those sites to keep up-to-date.
On these sites, like many others, the listings and offerings change daily. If I gave you links to a performance they list, it might be gone when you read this. So visit these sites frequently to find out what's currently available.
Special mention to Opera North in Leeds, leaving their free streaming of their brilliant Wagner Ring Cycle available online. See the previous blog post for details.
Here and overseas with Limelight
Limelight's section (subtitle: "The Arts at Home") offers a free weekly email, and (for the duration) a very cheap monthly digital subscription. Help keep our Limelight going! I accessed one or two of their streams anonymously, but you would need a subscription for full access to the rest of Limelight. As I write they have streams on that page to Saint-Saens' Organ Symphony (Canberra S.O.) and Arts Centre Melbourne's Morning Melodies on Edith Piaf. They even have a link to Yo-Yo Ma (did you go to his recent MSO concert?) who runs his own streaming video. Right now it's Saint-Saens' "The Swan".
Here's a sample from their diary of Australian Events (currently eleven, all with links): "28 Mar, 7.30pm (AWST) | West Australian Opera will release a Ghost Light Opera aria every Saturday on its social media platforms." Looks intriguing!
Among the International Events right now there's the dates for the Met Opera streams (their Fille du Regiment was a hoot - gone now but more wonders coming every week), and also the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. And of course many other arts events. Too many links to give here, just go to the Limelight site.
Around the World with the Guardian
Billed as "Free opera and classical for watching at home: Our critics' top picks" this page of the Guardian streams one opera at a time - right now it's Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle"(retitled Judith) from Bayerische Staatsoper Munich, with Nina Stemme as a London detective. English surtitles and the critic's summary. Available till 1 am our time Friday 27th March. Like many sites, each performance is available for a limited time - keep a watch on the daily changes in offerings.
Also in The Guardian is "'Quarantine soirees': classical music and opera to stream at home". with daily updates. Their highlighted performance right now is an open-air Peter Grimes - "Grimes on the Beach: the open air production of Britten’s Peter Grimes that was mounted during the 2013 Aldeburgh festival is available to stream." And on the beach where this grim opera is set. (See picture).
Too much! - they have links to (and listings of) currently streaming operas from Palermo, Turin, Vienna, Opera North and many others.
Europe's contribution with Operavision
Operavision is an outstanding EU project designed to educate about opera and the performances it streams. News, too. Go to the menu Performances > Opera to see the current offerings - currently 22 from all over Europe, with English surtitles. Try Janacek's Jenufa from Brno - marriage, infidelity and jealousy.
Next time
That's enough for one blog, and more than enough to watch. Don't blame me if you get bored in this period of isolation! In the next blog we'll select one or two opera companies who are doing noble things online and see what they're up to. Meantime, browse around these links we've given you; and in particular check the operagroup's emails or U3A Nillumbik's Newsletters for urgent news about great performances hitting the Internet - before they go off.
Keep safe and keep singing!
Tom the Techie.