ENO Mastersingers - cultural crime in prospect?

[Prommer]

Can we get Norman Lebrecht on the case??

[french frank]

Edit: could items like this not go out on 5 live extra's channel, when not in use, for instance?
or does it get used for something else?

Don't know what the position is about bandwidth these days. Way back when, Radio 3 used to have a reduced bitrate when R5L SE was broadcasting, but we've moved on from those days, I presume. They might as well have a R3Xtra for such broadcasts. It was mooted some while back but no one pushed for it, apparently.

P 8 of the BBC Trust review of Radio 3, 2011:

"Second, BBC management has raised the possibility of providing an opt-out DAB stream at the weekends for jazz, world music and special events. "

"[Action 3] We have also asked BBC management to consider in more detail the proposal for DAB opt outs when the dependencies with the wider radio portfolio strategy are resolved.

We have asked BBC management to report back by summer 2011."

No demand, perhaps?

[french frank]

BBC TV appears to have given up completely on opera now.

Could explain the silence to my query so far :-). When I asked about whether any part of the BBC was intending to highlight the children's Ten Pieces project (other than Radio 3) a prompt reply came with chapter and verse.

Maybe I should have aimed higher than the Director of Music, and gone for the Director-General? I will do so if I get no response: Where's the opera on television?

(Yes, I know there was an 'opera season'*** but I'm frankly no more keen on the BBC 'seasons' than on Radio 3's. Have it all now and then don't ask for any more)

*** Spring 2010, I see.

[Prommer]

Reggie's Mastersingers was so long that at its original run at Sadler's Wells it was cut!

Gardner's comes in at just under 6 hours with a 20 minute and a 40 minute interval.

[french frank]

Reggie's Mastersingers was so long that at its original run at Sadler's Wells it was cut!

Gardner's comes in at just under 6 hours with a 20 minute and a 40 minute interval.

But, as Dave suggested, for television it wouldn't need to be broadcast in one evening. An act an evening and chuck out the intervals - though a bit of pre-performance background on a preceding night would be a great idea. No idea of the answer but - how much coverage does a major football competition get?

[Prommer]

I remember that in 1994 the schedules of BBC2 were cleared at late-ish notice to relay Angela Gheorghiu's star debut in Richard Eyre's production of La Traviata... I know it was 20 years ago and that it is not as long as DMVN but... O tempora o mores!

[Dave2002]

But, as Dave suggested, for television it wouldn't need to be broadcast in one evening. An act an evening and chuck out the intervals - though a bit of pre-performance background on a preceding night would be a great idea. No idea of the answer but - how much coverage does a major football competition get?

I was, I fear, being slightly facetious, though in recent years I've noticed R3 broadcasting different acts of operas on different days - usually over 2 or 3 days, or perhaps across different weeks.

However, if assumptions are made as follows:

1. Most really wealthy opera lovers will go to see the opera live,
2. Slightly less wealthy opera lovers will go to see the cinema live versions,
3. Many typically middle to upper income people will have PVRs etc., and be able to record TV programmes
4. Operas might be possible to distribute via iPlayer (subject to various rights constraints perhaps)

then if maybe the BBC thinks it doesn't need to worry about people who are less well off, and can only watch live TV, then in that case
the suggestion of breaking a long opera into chunks wouldn't be so mad after all.

[Prommer]

I have asked Norman Lebrecht if he would lend this issue his attention (both the specific one of the Mastersingers at ENO and the wider issue of opera on terrestrial TV), and have sent him the following - having looked at my PVR:

'On BBC TV, the ROH has had relays of Simon Boccanegra (2010), Il Trittico (2011) Eugene Onegin (2012), Tosca (2012) etc in the last few years - and Written on Skin most recently (2013).

The last ENO one was (I think) The Damnation of Faust - in October 2011. Terry Gilliam directed, which may be the explanation.

Glyndebourne had Billy Budd, in November 2013, pretty much the last opera to be relayed on terrestrial TV by my reckoning.

But then all opera broadcasting on BBC seems to have come to a halt in the last year or so. There always used to be SOMETHING on at Christmas or thereabouts, but this has now vanished. It is not even that it has moved to BBC4... last year's Proms included no opera either. Even Barenboim's Ring in the bicentenary year was not broadcast on TV.

The WNO/Jones Meistersinger was broadcast on TV at the Proms in 2010 with Bryn Terfel, but this was not a staged performance in any sense, so unless something is done, there will be no visual record at all of this wonderful production... an appalling thing all round - for him, for ENO...'

At the very least, there needs to be a Radio 3 broadcast, but the problem may be that R3 broadcast the Met Meistersinger very recently (but frankly so what?).

But as one of Richard Jones' very best productions it demands to be preserved visually too.

[Flosshilde]

.. last year's Proms included no opera either. Even Barenboim's Ring in the bicentenary year was not broadcast on TV.

I thought Tristan & Isolde was in last year's Proms - and shown on TV? Or was it 2013?

[Prommer]

Think it was 2013, yes... but the key point is staged opera (or at least semi-staged as with Glyndebourne at the Proms) I would say.

The Barenboim Ring would simply have been good to see - as well as to hear - as a record of a cultural event and landmark really. And it had a fair bit of acting in it!

[french frank]

I was, I fear, being slightly facetious, though in recent years I've noticed R3 broadcasting different acts of operas on different days - usually over 2 or 3 days, or perhaps across different weeks.

And I wouldn't suggest it for R3 - I think the current practice that crops up on Ao3 sometimes is quite out of order. But if television is as much to introduce new audiences to opera, I don't see why not. And BBC television is where they're most likely to watch it - not live, not in a cinema. Three episodes would be like a weekly soap!

[aeolium]

But as one of Richard Jones' very best productions it demands to be preserved visually too.

Why don't ENO preserve it, then? They already have three cinema broadcasts due in the next few months. They could film a performance of their Meistersinger for later cinema and DVD release. They have the technology and the facilities - why wait for a third party to step in?

[Flosshilde]

Think it was 2013, yes...

Golly - time flies.
(Edit - yes, of course it was, I should have remembered as I watched it when I was visiting my mother, and she died in April last year so it couldn't have been 2014.)

but the key point is staged opera (or at least semi-staged as with Glyndebourne at the Proms) I would say.

The Barenboim Ring would simply have been good to see - as well as to hear - as a record of a cultural event and landmark really. And it had a fair bit of acting in it!

Well, so did T&I when I saw it. But yes, there has been a dearth of opera broadcasts on TV. BBC2 has long since become a near desert fo anything remotely 'niche', & BBC4 didn't last long as a 'cultural' channel. Remember the days of Saturday matinee operas on Channel 4 when it started?

[Prommer]

Remember the days of Saturday matinee operas on Channel 4 when it started?

Yes, and Glyndebourne on 4...presented by... Mark Steyn!

[Zucchini]

I think this is all rather naive and am surprised that ff has risked some recently won credibility at Radio 3.

If a "Document of Record", video or audio, is felt necessary it's nothing to do with the BBC - the ENO must fund it themselves or find a philanthropist. The production is sure to be revived so there's no rush.

The superlative McVicar Meistersinger at Glyndebourne with Gerald Finley & LPO under Jurowski was streamed via The Guardian and was made available on DVD just over a year ago (at £25 from the box office and elsewhere, I think).

A video production is out of the question at a couple of weeks notice. A Radio 3 recording for later transmission is pretty pointless when the production as a whole provides a successful evening which is greater than the sum of the parts.


(aeolium - sorry, hadn't seen your post - I've said some of the same - ENO should do it, not BBC's problem)