After the disaster of Lohengrin by François Girard, they are Marie-Nicole Lemieux and her colleagues from the cast of Falstaff who were, Saturday at the cinema, the victims of the technological wanderings which affect the diffusions of Metropolitan Opera in the cinemas of Canada.
Somehow, things are looking up at Cineplex. There was no, on Saturday, during the broadcast of Falstaff, image freeze. The fact remains that the opera was transformed, by drop outs (disappearance of the sound) recurring, every two or three minutes, in sonic slices or Emmenthal, depending on your cheese culture. Little ” inside joke ”, even, when the last interruption came on Falstaff enunciating “ tutti gabbati “, or textually “All in a cage”, but, in the sense of the booklet, “We are all fools”!
A change in technology
Explanations were provided to us by Cineplex authorities after Lohengrin. Initially, Judy Lung, Director of Communications for Cineplex, said, “A number of our theaters across the country have experienced technical issues while streaming Lohengrin from the Met Opera on Saturday. We worked quickly with our partners to resolve these issues and will schedule reruns where possible. We apologize to guests affected by this disruption. »
Going into more detail, we then learned the following: “At the end of 2022, Cineplex and other movie theater operators in Canada have transitioned from broadcasting via satellite to streaming high-bandwidth direct stream, which provides better video and audio quality. Most of the issues that occurred last weekend stem from this technology update. […] We are currently investigating the extent of the technical issues and are working quickly to resolve them for future live performances. »
It is clear that the two weeks between Lohengrin And Falstaff were enough to stem the disasters, but not to lead to a technological product worthy of the name. As for the Metropolitan Opera, we were deluding ourselves, since Dan Wakin, director of communications, wrote to us on Thursday: “I have no reason to believe that the problems of the last time will not have been corrected this Saturday, and so I expect that Falstaff stands out loud and clear! »
The hiatus on this is that the Met offers an option “ Live at Home of the same program and that testimonials from readers attest that the satellite signal being good, the experience at home is perfect. However, the Met “geoprotects” its agreement with Cineplex, which means that music lovers living near a broadcasting cinema cannot take advantage of the ” Live at Home “. In view of the recurrent difference in product quality, one is entitled to wonder if this “geoprotection” does not pose a problem in more ways than one.
The Met and Cineplex are “fat hard” to have such a tolerant audience. He stayed to see, even in these unfortunate conditions, a magnificently crafted show held by the baton of Daniele Rustioni, ideally distributed with petulant shrews, an irradiating Marie-Nicole Lemieux and an imposing Michael Volle in Falstaff in a very oiled show , aesthetic and funny by Robert Carsen.
We will, for a time, let everyone solve their problems. Since 2007, we have been among the very first in the international press to celebrate this exceptional experience as a new genre. We told you about it faithfully to take an artistic look at the phenomenon, not to relate epiphenomena to be classified in the wanderings, pranks and traps department.