During these days of sticking closer to home, we’ll be covering virtual events — entertainment and leisure options that you can pursue for free or cheap over the internet.
If content about virtual events is helpful to you, please leave a comment below or email us and let us know. We’re trying to adapt to the new reality, the same as you are.
Let’s start with the The Metropolitan Opera in New York City.
While it is closed to the public, it will offer nightly streams of encore presentations from its Live in HD series. These are shows that were originally transmitted as the cast performed live. Many were transmitted to movie theatres, where opera fans paid for tickets to watch this acclaimed opera company perform in NYC.
The streams began on Monday, March 16th, 2020. Each opera begin at 7:30 p.m.
To get sub-titles in English: When you watch the live stream, you can click on the small box at the bottom right that is labeled “CC” and this will provide captions for you.
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If you’ve been curious about opera, now is your big chance to check it out! Keep an open mind, because it is a very different form of storytelling from what you may be used to.
To watch, just open a browser on your preferred device and navigate to the Met’s home page at metopera.org — the homepage link will open the performance on the the Met Opera on Demand streaming service.
If you can’t watch in real time, you can watch later. Each performance will be available on metopera.org for 20 hours — which means till 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time the next day.
If you happen to use a Met Opera on Demand app, it will be available there too.
If you’re seeing a particular opera for the first time, we recommend googling the title and reading up on the plot and storyline. Trust us, it makes the experience a lot more enjoyable when you’re in the know.
From the press release:
“We’d like to provide some grand opera solace to opera lovers in these extraordinarily difficult times,” said Met General Manager Peter Gelb. “Every night, we’ll be offering a different complete operatic gem from our collection of HD presentations from the past 14 years.”
Photo above: Classical opera “The Barber of Seville” performed by members of the Dnipro Opera and Ballet Theatre.
Metropolitan Opera streaming schedule
We update this listing each week, usually on Fridays.
Friday, June 5
Thomas Adès’s The Exterminating Angel
Starring Audrey Luna, Amanda Echalaz, Sally Matthews, Sophie Bevan, Alice Coote, Christine Rice, Iestyn Davies, Joseph Kaiser, Frédéric Antoun, David Portillo, David Adam Moore, Rod Gilfry, Kevin Burdette, Christian Van Horn, and John Tomlinson, conducted by Thomas Adès.
From November 18, 2017.
Saturday, June 6
Verdi’s Otello
Starring Sonya Yoncheva, Aleksandrs Antonenko, and Željko Lučić, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
From October 17, 2015.
Sunday, June 7
Massenet’s Thaïs
Starring Renée Fleming, Michael Schade, and Thomas Hampson, conducted by Jesús López-Cobos.
From December 20, 2008.
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Thanks for the feedback! We’re working on new content now!
Thanks so much for this. Keep them coming so we can keep enjoying atlanta while staying safe!!!
Have you participated in any of the live streams yet? We’re curious to hear how they are!
Loving the live stream ideas