Madame Butterfly

On Saturday, I attended a real-time broadcast of the New York Metropolitan Opera – at a movie theater! For $22, I got to see Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, performed by world class musicians, one mile from my house. It was an amazing experience. Two theaters were sold out, so there were probably 700 – 800 people attending with me. We got flyers that described the plot of each act, and the whole thing was subtitled. But the best part was, during the intermissions we got to see backstage interviews with the performers, including the lead, Madame Butterfly herself! I thought the whole thing was amazing, I would definitely recommend it. Here is the website – this is something that is done across the country, for all of their operas, and a few other events too. They showed a commercial for the operas next season, and they look amazing, I’ll definitely go again.

Incidentally, there was also a commercial for a new documentary called The Audition, about an opera singing competition that the Met organizes, and I’m hoping to go see that as well. Maybe by the time I’m 100 I’ll know something about culture…