Now that everybody is quarantined, there’s no better time to get into opera than now. Why? Because The Metropolitan Opera has announced that it will stream operas for free on their website in the wake of coronavirus. The stream will occur nightly at 7:30 p.m. ET and will be available to stream for 20 hours, reports Vulture.
“We’d like to provide some grand opera solace to opera lovers in these extraordinarily difficult times,” said Met general manager Peter Gelb in a press release. “Every night, we’ll be offering a different complete operatic gem from our collection of HD presentations from the past 14 years.”
As he noted, the performances will be chosen from The Metropolitan Opera’s acclaimed Live in HD series. So far, the schedule for this upcoming week includes classics like Carmen, La Bohème, and La Traviata, as well as La Fille du Régiment, Lucia di Lammermoor, and Eugene Onegin.
Viewers can watch these operas guilt-free because they’ve all been pre-recorded, meaning none of the performers themselves are in harms way for the sake of entertainment. According to The Metropolitan Opera’s website, all of their upcoming live performances have been canceled through March 31st due to “coronavirus concerns.”
The Metropolitan Opera isn’t the only music outlet to suffer under coronavirus. Music festivals like Lollapalooza’s South American editions have been postponed and artists themselves — including Thom Yorke, Celine Dion, The Strokes, Lamb of God, and hundreds more — have pushed back their tours. Even the film industry is expected to lose $20 billion from the outbreak.
But on the bright side, coronavirus has bumped R.E.M.’s hit “It’s the End of the World” back onto the charts and it’s made quarantined Italians sing together from their windows in a truly beautiful viral video.
