Went to my first New York Met broadcast to theaters today -- Massenet's Thais, with Renee Fleming and Thomas Hampson -- and was very pleased. And would you believe it: the 471-seat arena-style theater was sold out...weeks in advance! A couple of weeks ago we were at the same theater, and I asked about the next broadcast, Thais. They said it was sold out. Tell me another one, I thought. When the site -- start at http://www.fathomevents.com/ and drill down -- also claimed a sellout, I thought there was something funny going on, maybe a lack of agreement between the theater chain and the Met on how to sell tickets. But no, almost every seat was occupied. I only got in because they had a small number of requested tickets that weren't picked up. I thought I was going to be the only one there, but when a seat at the real opera can cost way more than $200, a $22 seat with unobstructed views and plenty of legroom looks pretty darn good. Apparently to a lot more people than me. The broadcast included at least some of the vignettes that you hear on the Met's radio broadcasts. And there were a couple of charming intros and mini-interviews by Placido Domingo. I have to mention one other thing. The first person to take a bow at the end of the whole thing was the violinist who played possibly the most well-known music in the whole opera, the Meditation. I have never seen a member of the pit appear on the stage like that; bravo to whoever thought of that. The violinist was also the subject of an intermission interview. If you are thinking of attending one of these, I highly encourage it. But get your tickets in advance; there is apparently an opera cult out there that is buying up tickets like crazy. Thais will be encored on January 7, and La Rondine is the next new production, on January 10. Butterfly is coming up on March 7; don't even try to buy tickets ahead of me for that one. I've already signed up for an E-mail alert for when tickets to that go on sale. In addition to the ticket site above, you can get more information at: http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/broadcast/hd_events_next.aspx Mitch Friedfeld *********************************************** The CLASSICAL mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's HDMail High Deliverability Mailer for reliable, lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html