We watched the Met's "Romeo and Juliet" at the crack of 10am - live, in HD... For all of seven minutes. Then they claimed storm winds, but for the life of me it looked like projector issues... And suddenly we were an hour behind playing catchup. Everyone got two free movie tickets (per person) at the end as an apology, but by then I had a full refund pocketed.
I just have issues with why they bother tout the live aspect. If all our issues were really feed and not local server/projector, then having a pre-download would be vastly superior. Also, they could run it at a more Opera-friendly time of day (10am was a bit early, to sync with a 1pm in NYC).
The extras - like seeing backstage between scenes, getting candid moments with the actors/singers, and even the hokey interviews during the intermission were all nice bonuses - due to show up on HD-discs, no doubt, but definitely a 'special' thing they could've used better to get people in the theater.
Was surprised this is their second season, given all the issues - but also they left out little things, like the "turn off your cellphone" reminder, which are just overly obvious to the movie theater industry, but maybe not in the Opera world?!?
Anyway, given that it was free, plus movie tickets, it's hard to fault the event. But, as someone who sees this kind of simulcast/remote event as one of the pillars of keeping movie theaters in operation longterm, they have a LONG way to go to get it right. I definitely wouldn't pay them double a movie ticket for what I got - 4 hours filled with delays, blackouts (audio only), and stoppages to rewind/replay the parts that were missed.
They could also learn a lot from the small-box TV world... Netflix/downloads are still the best way to watch a movie, rather than any kind of on-demand/streaming option. There was no true benefit to seeing it live even when it did work - you can't FEEL the singers' voices hitting you in the front row... So, again, I just don't get why that aspect was valuable or important. It's not like my friends at the Met in New York were going to call and ruin the ending for me if I didn't watch it at the same exact time.
(That said, I can see how that would be the case with something like the Superbowl - but then the point of watching that with a theater full of strangers is, what exactly?)
It's an interesting experiment. But like all things - they need more content, and a more "regular" schedule to follow to really bring in a steady stream of customers.
Interesting enough, I had two similar incidents, but when the Live in HD was not live. I went to watch the replay of The First Emperor and The Barber of Seville at two different AMC theaters in two different states and both theaters managed to screw it up. In the first instance, we were an hour into the opera when previews for a string of R-rated movies cut in. We were told that someone forgot to reset the projector. The staff had no concept of the whole program, seemed completely ignorant of what they were doing and offered to start us after the intermission, cutting out a full one and a half of the opera. They also offered free movie tickets($7 worth), but didn't realize we had paid over $20 to see it in the first place. At the second AMC theater, the staff didn't even bother to tell the audience there was a problem. They were hoping we wouldn't notice that they had started in the middle of Act II. Only when I got up and said, "Hey, this isn't right" and confronted the manager did they confess they had "forgotten" to download 75% of the opera! Even then I had to argue and fight to get a full refund and free tickets not only for me but for the rest of the audience. The whole thing was very deceptive. Still, I don't blame the Met, it was very obviously the lack of training AMC gave it's employees that ruined two amazing opera experiences for me and hundreds of other opera fans. Thankfully, only the first theater (AMC 20 in San Diego) is still allowed to show the broadcast. The other theater in Phoenix is no longer showing them.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
deanypop @ Dec 16th 2007 5:48AM
We watched the Met's "Romeo and Juliet" at the crack of 10am - live, in HD... For all of seven minutes. Then they claimed storm winds, but for the life of me it looked like projector issues... And suddenly we were an hour behind playing catchup. Everyone got two free movie tickets (per person) at the end as an apology, but by then I had a full refund pocketed.
I just have issues with why they bother tout the live aspect. If all our issues were really feed and not local server/projector, then having a pre-download would be vastly superior. Also, they could run it at a more Opera-friendly time of day (10am was a bit early, to sync with a 1pm in NYC).
The extras - like seeing backstage between scenes, getting candid moments with the actors/singers, and even the hokey interviews during the intermission were all nice bonuses - due to show up on HD-discs, no doubt, but definitely a 'special' thing they could've used better to get people in the theater.
Was surprised this is their second season, given all the issues - but also they left out little things, like the "turn off your cellphone" reminder, which are just overly obvious to the movie theater industry, but maybe not in the Opera world?!?
Anyway, given that it was free, plus movie tickets, it's hard to fault the event. But, as someone who sees this kind of simulcast/remote event as one of the pillars of keeping movie theaters in operation longterm, they have a LONG way to go to get it right. I definitely wouldn't pay them double a movie ticket for what I got - 4 hours filled with delays, blackouts (audio only), and stoppages to rewind/replay the parts that were missed.
They could also learn a lot from the small-box TV world... Netflix/downloads are still the best way to watch a movie, rather than any kind of on-demand/streaming option. There was no true benefit to seeing it live even when it did work - you can't FEEL the singers' voices hitting you in the front row... So, again, I just don't get why that aspect was valuable or important. It's not like my friends at the Met in New York were going to call and ruin the ending for me if I didn't watch it at the same exact time.
(That said, I can see how that would be the case with something like the Superbowl - but then the point of watching that with a theater full of strangers is, what exactly?)
It's an interesting experiment. But like all things - they need more content, and a more "regular" schedule to follow to really bring in a steady stream of customers.
Rachel @ Dec 27th 2007 3:39PM
Interesting enough, I had two similar incidents, but when the Live in HD was not live. I went to watch the replay of The First Emperor and The Barber of Seville at two different AMC theaters in two different states and both theaters managed to screw it up. In the first instance, we were an hour into the opera when previews for a string of R-rated movies cut in. We were told that someone forgot to reset the projector. The staff had no concept of the whole program, seemed completely ignorant of what they were doing and offered to start us after the intermission, cutting out a full one and a half of the opera. They also offered free movie tickets($7 worth), but didn't realize we had paid over $20 to see it in the first place. At the second AMC theater, the staff didn't even bother to tell the audience there was a problem. They were hoping we wouldn't notice that they had started in the middle of Act II. Only when I got up and said, "Hey, this isn't right" and confronted the manager did they confess they had "forgotten" to download 75% of the opera! Even then I had to argue and fight to get a full refund and free tickets not only for me but for the rest of the audience. The whole thing was very deceptive. Still, I don't blame the Met, it was very obviously the lack of training AMC gave it's employees that ruined two amazing opera experiences for me and hundreds of other opera fans. Thankfully, only the first theater (AMC 20 in San Diego) is still allowed to show the broadcast. The other theater in Phoenix is no longer showing them.