The Met: Live in HD

We went to our downtown movie theater this morning to see a performance of The Magic Flute, broadcast live from the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Thousands of people all over the world were watching this production together—an amazing feat. It’s a great local opportunity to see opera for an affordable price. They did some interesting things with the staging: putting the Foley artist (sound effects) and her considerable equipment right on stage, featuring a visual artist who drew backgrounds as needed and operated puppets that were projected on a rear screen, and spotlighting two musicians (flute and glockenspiel) who left the orchestra to become part of the action. I found out about Foley way too late in life to give it a try, but if I ever get another go-round I would just love to play with that bag of tricks. 

The poppy has nothing to do with The Magic Flute, except we passed the garden when we walked downtown, and I’ve never seen one quite like it before.