The Metropolitan Opera: Lucia di Lammermoor

This is a review of Lucia di Lammermoor as seen in a movie theatre as part of a HD simulcast.

If you like you theater sound systems to be 30 to 33 dB louder than you'd ever hear in a live theater, with high frequencies boosted enough to stick needles into your ears, you'll love the Metropolitan Opera live in HD in a theater near you.

For these simulcasts the camera to zooms in close enough to count every pore and wrinkle when a singer goes for a high note just to make sure you see every bit of the effort involved. Projecting a voice over a full orchestra into a house that seats 3800 without using a microphone is a lot of work, but do we have to me reminded of that every instant?

Due to superior casting and conducting, and the remarkable staging of Mary Zimmerman the Lucia of Feb 7 was able to impress despite the active sabotage of the sound pick-up and video capture. Maybe they thought that they were just making the experience more 'immediate'. As it is, what they present is assault. Singing artists of this caliber deserve better than this