A night at the New York Metropolitan Opera | 60 Minutes Archive

60 minutes rewind the phrase the greatest show on earth usually refers to the circus but a man named peter geld who runs the metropolitan opera in new york city is doing everything he can to change that he's reinventing opera making it accessible to more people even those who always thought they would hate it gelb wants opera to become as popular and populist as it was a hundred years ago he believes people would come out in droves for opera if they just had a chance to see it there's no other place where you can see such monumental staging elaborate sets and a cast of hundreds [Music] and raw emotion [Music] beautiful women [Music] and special effects that you might expect to find in a hollywood movie but it's not just about the magic the met is above all about extraordinary voices [Music] some of the very best voices in the world beginning with rehearsals we followed a new production a reimagining of giuseppe verdi's masterpiece rigoletto polish tenor piotr bexala belts out one of verdi's greatest hits [Music] [Music] what's the difference between singing at the met and singing in the smaller european houses it's the most important opera house in the world you get more nervous before med performance than at other performances maybe a little maybe a little because i know how important this it is here [Music] serbian baritone sings the role of rigoletto [Music] pure [Applause] [Music] this is the this kind of crown of our business coming to new york and metropolitan because i know what kind of people what singers sang here and stood at the same places where i'm in fact when you sing the first time at the mid yeah is it a very big deal yes because that's your chance to prove yourself and if you were you know if you how can i say blew it out if you blow it you should blow it you're done that's it unlike divas of the past german soprano deanna damero is a working mom nursing a two-month-old baby and a cold she has a lot to contend with [Music] you were quite sick last week yes i'm still a bit but i tried not to sing all the time and reduce a little bit just a little bit i mean you were belting it out no no only at the end [Music] [Music] rigoletto is far from the only thing going on here today there can be as many as 10 operas in production at once right now the mitt stage is being set up for a new version of richard wagner's parsifal a sacred opera that's never been done like this before dozens of raven-haired maidens sloshing around in a river of blood 1600 gallons of the stuff heated so the singers don't get cold overseeing all this is that worried looking man peter gelb the mets general manager he says opera is a blood sport i go in every day to the met knowing that this is a there's a battle to be to be waged and fought for the survival of this art form and uh so i'm here to do that this is your seventh year at the met yes i'm still here seven years micromanaging one of the biggest theaters in the world and one of the most expensive to run the med employs over 3 000 people it spends more than a million dollars a day on its productions we are the closest thing to an opera factory that one could possibly imagine except the difference is that all of our factory workers are the greatest artists in the world right now we're doing seven performances a week constantly going from opera to opera which is why our stage is busier than any other opera house in the world it's like a giant self-sufficient ocean liner but that liner was in danger of sinking when gelp took over in 2006 it was awash in debt with falling attendance and an audience which might not be around much longer it was way behind the times and it had become so mired in an image of elitism that unless that changed unless it was prepared to become accessible as opera once had been it was going to be very difficult for the met to survive to make opera more accessible yelp opened up dress rehearsals to the public for free and put up huge screens in lincoln center and times square [Music] and he did something which has never been done before he began transmitting live performances in hd to movie theaters around the world now in 64 countries those broadcasts are money makers this year they grossed nearly 60 million dollars more than three quarters of total tickets sold there's no opera company in the world today that has a global audience that the met has because of these live hd transmissions but you're still 100 million dollars in debt how does that relate to everything you've done opera is always in debt from a business point of view opera shouldn't exist i mean it only exists because there are enough people who love opera and my job is to try to persuade them that it is necessary to change in order to keep the art form alive otherwise otherwise it will die with them the story will continue after this one of geld's strategies to keep opera alive is to update the classics like rigoletto after four weeks of rehearsals it's opening night rigoletto has been performed over 800 times here but this audience almost 4 000 here and another 350 000 watching in hd as far away as tokyo is about to see a radically different version 10 minutes before curtain you can cut the tension with an a-flat [Music] okay we are ready it seems that i'm not nervous but yeah of course i am and this is a big thing so i'm i'm kind of you know cooking somewhere here you have this feeling that everything's that you're going to throw up [Laughter] gilda to stay dry please miss damn stage right [Music] maestro to the pit please maestro to the orchestra please zappy verdi set his tale of debauchery lust and vengeance in a corrupt court in 16th century italy this one plays out in its modern equivalent las vegas in the 1960s the heartthrob the duke is now a big shot singer and casino owner with an [Music] [Applause] [Music] subtitles for its hd broadcasts and those have been revamped too [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] it's a big role of the dicer peter gill will the old gun be ready for showgirls a pole dancer even a sharp dressed hitman his name is sparrafucio one of the longest names in operas [Music] [Music] when you decided to put on regulato in las vegas what worried you the most that i was heading for a disaster but it's a risk worth taking the risk of doing nothing is the greatest risk of all in the last act the mood changes rigoletto will not have a happy ending very few operas do let's go and die yeah but peacefully [Applause] the plot is much too complicated to explain but we'll just tell you rigoletto's daughter sacrifices herself to save the duke it will be a spectacular death scene with the met pulling out all its stumps from the chorus backstage to the lighting team to the hd crew sending it out live around the world [Music] the hitman offs the daughter and stuffs her into the trunk of a 1960 cadillac coupe de ville [Music] she breathes her last in her father's arms wait for it [Music] [Applause] lord [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] at the final curtain the audience jumps to its feet even the orchestra applauds that doesn't happen every day for gold it was a good night but an opera as in so many other things you're only as good as your next

Channel: 60 Minutes

Views: 69,229

Keywords: 60 Minutes, CBS News, opera, new york metropolitan opera

Id: 64T96wxsihU

Length: 13min 45sec (825 seconds)

Published: Sun May 22 2022