Popcorn
BELOW: The Berlin Philharmonic’s digital internet broadcasts come from its concert hall. OPPOSITE: A neighborhood movie theater in Cranford, N.J., one of many theaters showing LA Phil LIVE simulcasts.
Peter Adamik
& Prokofiev by Jennifer Melick
Are orchestra concerts at the movies here to stay?
O
ne Sunday afternoon last fall, I headed out for the latest feature at a nearby movie theater. Things started out in the usual way: buy a ticket, grab a bag of popcorn, sit down to watch the previews. Then the main feature began—no, not a new 3D animated film, bromance, chick flick, or action film, but a live all-Mendelssohn concert by the Los Angeles Philharmonic from Walt Disney Concert Hall. At that moment, classical-music lovers at hundreds of movie theaters around the U.S. and Canada were doing the exact same thing. Of course, unless you’ve been living in a cave, you know that in the past several years there has been an explosion of cultural offerings at movie theaters. Much of it is simulcast live, following the example of the Metropolitan Opera and its successful Live in HD broadcasts. In the past year alone, you could go to the movies for “The Goat Rodeo Sessions” with Yo-Yo Ma, Chris Thile, Edgar Meyer, and Stuart Duncan; a 3D Madama Butterfly from London’s Royal Opera House; Lang Lang in an all-Liszt recital and orchestra program with the Philadelphia Orchestra; a live concert of the Israel Philharmonic from Jerusalem; and the New York Philharmonic’s concert staging of Stephen Sondheim’s Company.
70
symphony
SUMMER 2012