The 18th season of The Met: Live In HD is coming to South Africa on 20 October 2024. Select Ster-Kinekor cinemas and Cinema Nouveau screens will exclusively air eight opera productions – part of the Metropolitan Opera’s award-winning series.
In addition, The Met: Live In HD has partnered with Ster-Kinekor V&A Waterfront to allow Cape Town and global audiences to view a live stream of The Met together for the first time.
Lynne Wylie, the Chief Marketing Officer at Ster-Kinekor, says: “With The Met: Live in HD productions screening in our cinemas, local audiences can experience some of the world’s best-loved operas from The Met’s opulent stage to the big screen.” Further to this, she explained how “the theatre-like setting enables cinemagoers to become an extension of the live production’s audience, making these productions more accessible”.
Launched in 2006, this series made waves by becoming the first arts institution to offer alternative cinema content in the form of operas on big screens globally. Today, The Met is still leading the world in this regard. In fact, they have sold over 31 million cinema tickets around the world to date.
Peter Gelb, General Manager of The Met’s Maria Manetti Shrem, says: “From its beginning, The Met: Live In HD was created to connect The Met to a global audience.”
Gelb explains that this series started out as an experiment seventeen years ago. But, it “has now become a staple experience for opera lovers all over the world.”
According to Gelb, the 18th season reflects how opera is changing at The Met. Ultimately, this is where timeless classics are balanced against modern works, advancing and diversifying the opera as a form of art.
Les Contes d’Hoffmann by Offenbach, screened on 20 and 22 October 2024, and live streamed on 5 October 2024.
Tosca by Puccini, screened on 22 and 24 December 2024, and live streamed on 23 November 2024.
Fidelio by Beethoven, screened on 30 March and 1 April 2025, and live streamed on 15 March 2025.
Le Nozze di Figaro by Mozart, screened on 11 and 13 May 2025.
Il Barbiere di Siviglia by Rossini, screened on 29 June and 1 July 2024, and live streamed on 31 May 2025.
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