5 minutes to Manon

This is what the screen was telling us as we filed into the auditorium for a live performance of Massenet’s “Manon” from the  Metropolitan Opera in New York City where it was just coming up to Noon, for for us it was 5pm and we were in a cinema in Ireland. Other audiences around the world were also gathering, soon we could see the audience in New York taking their seats.

The music was magic, the performances great. The use of the technology was really impressive, live satellite feed in high definition, great sound. Interviews with the conductor and performers during the intervals (two of them twenty minutes each), time to nip out to the supermarket in the complex.

Only the lucky ones have tickets for “Traviata” next week which brings the season to a close. With intervals it was four and a quarter hours. Easy for the beginners, prepare us for the big ones to come, encores of the Ring cycle running up to five hours at a time!