Fifteen operas throughout Europe will be offering some of their productions for free on a new streaming platform called "The Opera Platform". Brussels Théâtre de la Monnaie is taking part in the project launched this Thursday on the occasion of the 9th edition of the European Opera Days on May 9th and 10th. "The Opera Platform" is the result of a partnership between Opera Europa (organisation grouping opera festivals and companies), Arte and around fifteen European operas. Austria's Wiener Staatsoper, the Nederlandse Opera (Amsterdam), London's Covent Garden Royal Opera House and La Monnaie are all taking part.
The platform is available in three languages ??(English, French and German) and offers entire operas, plays and synopses, interviews with artists, backstage reports and documentaries. There will be at least one new opera on offer each month. It will be available for streaming for 6 months, with subtitles in 6 languages: French, English, German, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese.
On Thursday, the platform was launched with a live broadcast from the Teatro Real in Madrid of Giuseppe Verdi's "La Traviata", directed by David McVicar. During May, a dozen more operas will be made available online, including "Sinbad, a journey through living flames" with La Monnaie's documentary, "Opera Classes". This season, La Monnaie will be offering 3 operas for streaming.
La Monnaie has actually been offering this service since 2011 because it makes its productions available on its website for a period of 3 weeks following the final performance. "We aren't sure we'll be able to offer every performances from next season because they will be be taking place in different locations," said Naomi Hooraert, spokesperson for La Monnaie. The theatre will be closed for renovations from June 2015 to March 2016.
(Source: Belga)
