Finally a cinema in Toronto is screening opera in cinema broadcasts that are not from the Met. Bloor Hot Docs (Bloor and Bathurst) is showing a number of Royal Opera House offerings. They aren’t live and the line up makes even the Met seem adventurous but the theatre is said to have good sound, comfy seats and encourages food and drink. Here’s the screening schedule so far:
| SAT | Feb 15, 2014 | 1:30 PM | ROYAL OPERA HOUSE – DON GIOVANNI | ||
| SAT | March 15, 2014 | 1:30 PM | ROYAL OPERA HOUSE – TURANDOT | ||
| SAT | April 19, 2014 | 12:30 PM | ROYAL OPERA HOUSE – PARSIFAL | ||
| SAT | May 17, 2014 | 1:00 PM | ROYAL OPERA HOUSE – LES VEPRES SICILIENNES | ||
| SAT | June 14, 2014 | 1:00 PM | ROYAL OPERA HOUSE – LA BOHEME | ||
| SAT | July 12, 2014 | 1:00 PM | ROYAL OPERA HOUSE – MANON LESCAUT |
Hat tip to Lydia at Definitely the Opera for the spot.
operaramblings 
We saw La Boheme from the ROH (and Lohengrin from La Scala) about a year ago at a downtown “art house” cinema.
They are distributed in the US by Emerging Pictures. The La Boheme had intermission features hosted by Tony Pappano, which was kind of fun.
These cine-casts are nice because you generally don’t have to be at the movie theater by 11 or 12 on a Saturday morning!. Unfortunately, they must not sell well (though Lohengrin was packed!), because the three theaters within reasonable traveling distance from me don’t seem to be screening them any more. 😦
For the longest time there was no take up on the non Met stuff here. The ROH 3D Carmen made it to one theatre in the far north of the city and I think one mid town place did something from La Scala (not Lohengrin, maybe Die Walkure). Otherwise Cineplex Odious had a lock on the market and they were exclusive to the Met.
ALSO, you can drink at the Bloor Cinema, so have a glass of red while you watch them!
Exactly. Actually I usually take a flask to the Met broadcasts but don’t tell Cineplex Odious that!
Maybe not the most exciting “season” but Vepres in any language is rare and it is a Herheim production. The DG is by Holten whose Ring I believe you have made it half way through.
I will be going to both of those. Actually I got all through Holten’s Ring. It’s the Kupfer I am half way through.
Are the 2014-15 ROH broadcasts being shown in Toronto? I saw L’Elisir d’Amore in December and it was delightful. The rest of the lineup looks interesting this year as well although I do note the cinema here isn’t playing the full broadcast schedule on the ROH website. Maybe they will next year, as the room was pretty full for L’Elisir, so if this keeps up…
As best I can tell the closest options to Toronto are Oshawa and Hamilton.
Oh, too bad! Well, the dvds are available of course but I really like the big screen, even if the sound quality isn’t always perfect (or the movie in the next room has a lot of explosions…) I guess Cineplex must have a stranglehold on Toronto? In Alberta the ROH series is being shown by Landmark, fingers crossed they continue to survive.
It would be great if they cut a deal with TIFF. The sound there id fantastic and it’s a very pleasant place to see a movie. I can dream I guess!