Introduction to Susannah at Pinehurst: Your electronic opera teaser!
by Glenn Alsup
On Friday, April 25th, I took the trip over to the Pinehurst Country Club to hear Pat Pearce talk about this year’s upcoming production of Susannah. I enjoy these events since I get to see and catch-up with all the opera regulars; interestingly, at this event there seemed to be numerous newcomers as well.
This was the final part of the 2008 opera teasers series. I decided to record the event for those of you that couldn’t attend, but wanted to hear the proceedings. To listen to Pat’s presentation select the arrow directly below the image above.
Capturing this sort of thing is ideal for mp3 audio files. Many businesses use this format to present and archive seminars online and often call them webinars. Several opera companies are using this technology to distribute their rich media through podcasting.
A podcast is used to describe the distribution of a digital-media file over the Internet using syndication feeds for playback on portable media players and/or computers. The term podcast can refer either to the content itself or to the method by which it is syndicated; the latter is also called podcasting.
I’m hoping to get your feedback on the topic. Do you find it valuable to hear events like this online? Would you subscribe to a service that automatically downloaded opera teasers to your computer or mobile device? Could you imagine listening to the basic facts of an opera on the way up to Central City before a performance instead of reading the program notes?
In this case, digital video doesn’t make a lot of sense because there really isn’t any staging and visuals remain mostly the same throughout the presentation. Video files are many times the size of audio files and can be costly to deliver to would-be viewers. As bandwidth increases on the Internet this becomes less of a factor, but today audio files are still more prominent for podcasting.
Like the Met’s Live HD broadcasts, there are many things you miss out on by not participating in an event like this in person. So next year make sure you sign up for these events when you get the mailing like the one above. Seating can sometimes be limited.
The Pinehurst Country Club was beautiful on Friday evening and conversations during cocktail hour are always a lot of fun. Our table all laughed out loud at Chris’ chicken stories while Nancy scoured the room for potential donors. Deb and Pam gave me cautious support for trying something new and then Phoebe just came by and gave me a big hug.
The Internet gives us so many options, but cyberspace can’t really replace the feelings we get from the personal interactions we make with people at events like this. You can’t be in two places at once though and it’s pretty easy to record these sort of things now.
I’ve actually found myself reminiscing the powerful music of Carlisle Floyd again and again. Click here to listen to several short musical selections on Amazon. I guess that means this opera teaser was a success since Susannah will be an event I’ll be sure not to miss this year. Perhaps this electronic version will do the same for you!
