ENO Mastersingers - cultural crime in prospect?

[Prommer]

Would someone please put me straight if I am wrong but with the current run extending to 10th March, I fear there is still no broadcast on radio or television in prospect? This would be a tragedy. The Richard Jones production definitely deserves to be preserved as does the company effort as a whole, especially at a time when ENO needs to show to the world what it is doing.

We might need to mount a campaign here and now...!

[slarty]

I am hoping that the Beeb will have recorded it for broadcast at a later date, as it would be a tremendously long evening live.

[agingjb]

Surely any production, opera or theatre, supported to any extent by an Arts Council grant should be recorded.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I am hoping that the Beeb will have recorded it for broadcast at a later date, as it would be a tremendously long evening live.

It would be just as long if recorded, apart from the 2 intervals. Just think - Radio 3 for 5 hours and no texts, tweets or e-mails.

[french frank]

We might need to mount a campaign here and now...!

I have emailed the BBC Director of Music (Bob Shennan) to ask whether a broadcast is in prospect, and copied Alan Davey in.

(Bob Shennan coordinates music broadcasts across radio and television)

[Stanley Stewart]

Thank you, ff.

[french frank]

Thank you, ff.

No ask, no get. Even if ask, not necessarily get but ... :-)

[Dave2002]

It would be just as long if recorded, apart from the 2 intervals. Just think - Radio 3 for 5 hours and no texts, tweets or e-mails.

Isn't the original version of Rienzi longer?

The Mastersingers performance could be a challenge, as even with the early start, it might still be a rush to get to the last train.

[french frank]

Isn't the original version of Rienzi longer?

The Mastersingers performance could be a challenge, as even with the early start, it might still be a rush to get to the last train.

Though for Radio 3, I can't see that it would be more of a 'challenge' than 144 hours of 'every note that Mozart wrote' or 240 hours of Bach ... But perhaps the day-long programmes on Berlioz and Janáček are a better comparison. As far as television is concerned, we know BBC Two fell by the wayside years ago as a provider of cultural quality - but surely fans could give up their regular fix of upmarket detective thrillers to fit in an opera one evening?

[Stanley Stewart]

No ask, no get. Even if ask, not necessarily get but ... :-)

You're too modest, ff! I've just been browsing Arnold Goodman's 1993 memoirs, 'Tell Them I'm On My Way', as a booster to a pipe-dream in my autumnal years. Remember the turmoil of the 70s; high inflation, industrial unrest and IRA bomb alerts which traumatised us nationally? We now face the prospect of a few General Elections in quick succession but, as always, we'll muddle-through to renewed prosperity.

My dream - a magnificent obsession? - is to see the end of a now moribund Coliseum Theatre, albeit with tears after several decades of sheer joy at 'the people's theatre', and, with the zeitgeist of renewed prosperity - 'twill come'... the readiness is all' - the construction of an extended Arts City - as a continuation of our National Galleries. in the block from a demolished Garrick Theatre, Charing X Rd, through to the Duke of Yorks Theatre, St Martin's Lane; all to include an opera house and a couple of concert halls. An ideal site for destinations north, south, east and west! Perhaps the Goodall Theatre, or the Harewood Concert Hall et al. All we now need is the will to see it through backed by the equivalents of Goodman, Jennie Lee, Stephen Arlen, George Harewood, with, say, the feisty spirit and common sense which Mary Stocks used to bring to Any Questions!

[slarty]

It would be just as long if recorded, apart from the 2 intervals. Just think - Radio 3 for 5 hours and no texts, tweets or e-mails.

Yes indeed, but Wagner intervals tend to be a bit longer than normal, the performances starting early while possible listeners are still on their way home from work.
It was certainly so for Reggie's Mastersinger at the Coloseum with performances starting at 4.30PM (Intervals of 30 and 45m) It stayed the same when Mackerras took over.
Do the present performances begin as early as that?

[french frank]

Do the present performances begin as early as that?

5pm - 3pm on Saturdays.

But a recorded/filmed version can be broadcast on any day at any time - in theory.

[teamsaint]

5pm - 3pm on Saturdays.

But a recorded/filmed version can be broadcast on any day at any time - in theory.

..depending on news bulletin requirements.......

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?

[LHC]

Though for Radio 3, I can't see that it would be more of a 'challenge' than 144 hours of 'every note that Mozart wrote' or 240 hours of Bach ... But perhaps the day-long programmes on Berlioz and Janáček are a better comparison. As far as television is concerned, we know BBC Two fell by the wayside years ago as a provider of cultural quality - but surely fans could give up their regular fix of upmarket detective thrillers to fit in an opera one evening?

BBC TV appears to have given up completely on opera now. The last opera shown by the BBC was last year's Glyndebourne production of Der Rosenkavalier, which was only available on line. There was no opera shown on TV over Christmas (in previous years the BBC have shown their only opera of the year over Christmas). Even though the BBC have announced 2015 as 'the year of song and dance', there are no plans to show any complete operas on TV. The programmes that have been announced are:

A Classical Voice season on BBC Two, BBC Four and BBC Radio 3 in summer (June) includes the return of BBC Cardiff Singer of the World; new commissions on BBC Two including La Traviata & The Women Of London (Working Title), and The Duke and the Composer: Monteverdi in Mantua; and a three-part BBC Four series on the classical voice, The Golden Age of Singing, presented by Music Director of the Royal Opera, Sir Antonio Pappano.

It appears that the BBCTV controllers are content to squeeze the odd hour-long documentary into their schedules, but a complete opera (and especially Meistersingers) would be far too long.

[Dave2002]

Wolf Hall has been split into 6 manageable sections. Would this perhaps also work for the Mastersingers?