If you are into classical music and opera, today could have you running from cinema to cinema. At 11.30am, there is a screening at Palace IFC of Herbert von Karajan conducting the Berlin Philharmonic in Beethoven's Symphonies Nos 7 and 9. In the afternoon, you can catch Carmen in 3D, a co-production between London's Royal Opera House and RealD of Georges Bizet's famous opera, released here yesterday. And if you still have energy left, The Met: Live in HD 2010-2011 Season continues tonight at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts' Bethanie Campus with Giacomo Puccini's La Fanciulla del West (Girl of the West), starring Deborah Voigt.
All this will set you back at most only HK$450.
Thanks to the introduction of digital technology in cinemas, the classical arts have been made more accessible and affordable to a broader audience worldwide (including Hong Kong) in the past couple of years via the big screen. It is one of the most effective ways to popularise art forms that were hitherto perceived as elitist.
The Royal Opera House's Carmen in 3D is just the latest arts project riding the crest of the digital revolution and benefiting from it. According to Stephen Michael, managing director of the opera house's enterprises division, going digital has more to do with breaking down barriers between the company and its potential audience than exploiting a readily available technology. He says since the venue has a fixed number of seats, there will always be a capacity problem. Its location in Covent Garden and ticket prices - good seats cost more than GBP100 (HK$1,270) - may also deter those from outside London or on a budget from attending its opera and ballet productions. So by bringing Royal Opera House works to the masses via cinemas, it can overcome these barriers not only in Britain but all over the world.
With the 3-D technology, Michael also hopes they can now replicate the live experience of a show the closest that they can. 'With 3-D there is an upgrading of the experience which takes [it] a bit closer to the feeling of really being there - the depth and emotion that you get only with 3-D - it's not about gimmick, it's not things flying out of the screen at you in the way you'd expect in an animated cartoon or an action film,' he says. 'It's more about heightening your sense of realism, which I think increases your engagement with the performance. It's also about just trying to recreate as preciously as possible the experience of being at the opera house.'
Local cinema operator Multiplex Cinema Limited (MCL), which went digital in 2003 (with Finding Nemo) and is now screening Carmen in 3D, buys this concept: it started its 'alternative content' programming last June with The Met: Live in HD highlights. MCL's general manager June Wong Bo-chu says response to these screenings has been encouraging.