The Met offers its wares in a time of pandemic

Above : Tenor Jonas Kaufmann singing in Richard Wagner’s “Parsifal.”

During this time of pandemic, most movie fans I know have taken advantage of their ability to stream any number of movies through such services as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Apple TV and more. The Magic Lantern, too, has offered several screening options, which I’ve written about over the past weeks.

One thing I haven’t written about, though, is opera. And I’m about to correct that oversight right now.

The Metropolitan Opera is streaming its “Live in Concert” series, featuring a range of talent appearing in what it’s calling “in a groundbreaking new series of pay-per-view recitals in striking locations around the globe, each live via satellite and shot with multiple cameras.”

For example, tenor Jonas Kaufman will sing a dozen of the “most popular, show-stopping arias in the operatic repertoire” beginning at 10 a.m. PDT on Sunday. Kaufman will be performing in the atmospheric Polling Abbey, which sits just outside Munich. Kaufman’s performance will include “Nessun dorma” from ” Turnadot,” “E lucevan le stelle” from “Tosca,” “Ah! lève-toi, soleil” from “Roméo et Juliette,” and “La fleur que tu m’avais jetée” from “Carmen,” among many others.

In addition, the program will feature video highlights of Kaufman’s past staged performances.

In the following weeks, such singing stars as Renée Fleming will perform in Washington, D.C. (Aug. 1), Roberto Alagna and Aleksandra Kurzak will perform in Èze, France (Aug. 16), Lise Davidsen in Oslo (Aug. 29) and so on through December with a different lineup each week.

The price for individual shows is $20, while the entire series prices out at $240. Seems a bit steep, but each performance will be streamed as a scheduled live event and then will remain available on demand for a full 12 days. (Questions? Click here .)

This, of course, is in addition to The Met’s “Nightly Opera Streams,” which are being streamed free of charge (and have been since March, see embed below). Because to some fans, there is no such thing as too much opera.