NEW YORK:The Metropolitan Opera has released “Met Opera on Demand,” a new app for the iPad that allows unlimited streaming access to video transmissions from the Met’s Live in HD series, plus hundreds of historic TV and radio broadcasts. The free app, available for download from the App Store, will give opera fans around the world mobile access to high-quality audio and video streams of hundreds of performances from the Met’s 81-year broadcast history. New content will be added monthly, including recent Live in HD transmissions featuring the biggest stars of today’s opera world. Live in HD titles will be added to the service two to three months after their premiere in movie theaters. A subscription is required to access streaming content, with plans beginning at $14.99 a month.
Forty-four selections will initially be available from the company’s Live in HD series, including the behind-the-scenes intermission features. Productions currently available for streaming on Met Opera on Demand include last season’s comedic hit “Le Comte Ory,” starring Juan Diego Flórez, Diana Damrau, and Joyce DiDonato; this season’s opening-night production, “Anna Bolena,” with star soprano Anna Netrebko in the title role; and Michael Grandage’s new production of “Don Giovanni,” seen in movie theaters in October 2011.
The streaming service also allows users access to historic telecasts featuring stars like Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo, Joan Sutherland, and Leontyne Price. The video library includes historic performances, such as a 1979 production of “Don Pasquale” starring Beverly Sills or a 1998 “Le Nozze di Figaro” telecast starring Renée Fleming, Cecilia Bartoli, and Bryn Terfel. All videos include English subtitles and many offer titles in French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. The Met Opera on Demand app includes social sharing capabilities for Facebook and Twitter and provides users with the ability to create favorites lists.
More than 250 audio performances from Met history are available through the Met Opera on Demand app. Digitally remastered audio streams, beginning with a 1936 performance of Wagner’s “Götterdämmerung,” starring Lauritz Melchior, are available.
New content will be added to Met Opera on Demand each month. Subscribers with the iPad app may also stream content on a personal computer for no additional charge.
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