The first thing opera buff Marcelo Perez did when he retired eight years ago was take a bus to the U.S. border and then a train to New York, where he realized a lifelong dream by catching a performance at the Metropolitan Opera. From a nosebleed seat at the Met, the 76-year-old former office assistant for Mexico's Treasury Department saw Puccini's “Tosca,” which tells the story of a love triangle involving an opera singer, an artist and a police chief, as well as torture, murder and suicide. “The music pierced right through my soul,” Perez recalled. “The experience was grandiose.”
歌劇迷佩雷斯8年前退休後第一件事，就是搭巴士越過美國邊境，再轉搭火車到紐約，在那裡他實現了一生的夢想，一窺大都會歌劇院的現場演出。從大都會歌劇院最高最遠的所謂「鼻血座位」上，這位墨西哥財政部76歲的前辦公室助理聆賞了普契尼名劇《托斯卡》，它講述一個三角戀愛故事，劇情涉及一位歌劇演唱家、一位藝術家和一位警察局長，以及酷刑、謀殺和自殺。佩雷斯回憶說：「音樂貫穿我的靈魂，那種經驗無與倫比。」
On a recent afternoon, Perez was preparing to catch another opera, Verdi's “Il trovatore,” but without the bus and train rides. This performance was being broadcast live from the Met to a packed house at Mexico City's National Auditorium, the biggest arts and culture venue in the capital. In fact, growing numbers of people around Mexico and Latin America are filling auditoriums and movie theaters to catch simulcasts of live performances beamed from the Met. With low ticket prices and strong word of mouth, the broadcasts are introducing many in the region to the kind of world-class opera and dance previously available only in U.S. and European cities.
不久前一個下午，佩雷斯正準備趕著去聽另一齣歌劇威爾第的《遊唱詩人》，但這回他不用搭巴士和火車。這次表演從大都會歌劇院向墨西哥市國家劇院的滿場聽眾現場直播，這也是墨國首都最大的藝術文化表演場地。事實上，愈來愈多墨西哥和拉丁美洲周邊國家民眾正湧向歌劇院和電影院，希望聆賞大都會歌劇院的同步現場轉播。由於票價低，口碑又好，這些現場直播已引介該地區很多人得以親炙世界級歌劇和舞蹈，過去這只能在歐美各大城市欣賞。
Opera simulcasts around Latin America are often sold out, and in Mexico City, the Met operas have been such a success with people of all ages that the National Auditorium this year added ballets staged by Russia's Bolshoi Theater and the Opera National de Paris. High-definition technology “has democratized these art forms and made them available to all the people who can't afford to travel and pay the 300 dollars a ticket,” said Giovanni Cozzi, president of Rising Alternative, a New York-based company that has international distribution rights for the Bolshoi Ballet, Opera de Paris and Teatro alla Scala Milan, among other institutions.
拉丁美洲周邊國家的歌劇同步直播，門票往往銷售一空，在墨西哥市，由於大都會歌劇院的歌劇受到所有年齡層觀眾青睞，國家劇院今年已決定新增俄羅斯波修瓦劇院和巴黎國家歌劇院推出的芭蕾舞劇。高畫質技術「已經使這些表演藝術平民化，使付不起旅費和300美元一張門票的民眾也有機會欣賞。」總部在紐約的另類飛揚經紀公司總裁柯智說，該公司擁有波修瓦芭蕾舞團、巴黎歌劇院及米蘭斯卡拉劇院等劇團的國際發行權。
The Met program pioneered simulcasts with a performance of Mozart's “The Magic Flute” shown in 60 places in the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom during the 2006-2007 season. The program was so popular that the opera house expanded the high-definition satellite broadcasts to 1,500 screens in 46 countries, reaching 2 million spectators a year worldwide, said Met general manager Peter Gelb. “The core audience is opera fans, but this is our tool to help develop new audiences as well,” he said. “Opera is not for everyone. It's for an intelligent audience that is interested in great singing, in great theater, but everything we're doing is to make it available to as many people as possible.”
大都會國家歌劇院這項計畫濫觴於2006-2007年那一季向美、加、英3國60地同步播出莫扎特的名劇《魔笛》。大都會國家歌劇院總經理蓋爾布表示，這項計畫極受歡迎，歌劇院還因此擴大高解析度衛星轉播到46國的1500個銀幕，全球每年有200萬觀眾收看，他並稱：「核心觀眾是歌劇迷，但我們也可借著這個工具幫助開發新的觀眾層，歌劇並不適合每個人，它是針對酷好美妙歌聲的智慧型聽眾所設計，但我們所做的一切是盡可能給最多人聆賞。」
During a recent Mexico City showing of “Il Trovatore,” all 6,500 seats were sold out at $3.50 to $35 each. Seeing the opera at the Met costs from $30 to $330. Spanish subtitles translated the Italian of Verdi's dark masterpiece, which recounts a deadly rivalry between two long-lost brothers that results in infanticide and a climactic suicide.
最近在墨西哥市轉播的《遊唱詩人》，所有6500個座位被搶購一空，票價從3.5至35美元不等（約台幣100-1000元）。但到大都會歌劇院現場看則要30到330美元（約台幣860-9500元）。威爾第這齣義大利黑色劇作有西班牙語字幕，故事講失散多年的兩兄弟一場致命的對立，在殺嬰和自殺中全劇達到高潮後結束。
Jorge Gutierrez, promotions director for the National Auditorium, said prices were kept low to attract opera newcomers and compete with other attractions in the city. The auditorium, which has the rights to distribute the Met program within Mexico, has expanded it to eight other Mexican cities. “If you don't know about opera and have never listened to it, it can be intimidating,” said Karina Pedroza, a 22-year-old student who was getting ready to watch her first opera at the National Auditorium, Wagner's “Die Walkure,” which closed the Met's 2010-2011 season. “The Met can summon the best in the world and spare no cost; that's why it would be impossible for an opera like that to come to Mexico,” Gutierrez said. “Even if they went on tour, it would be impossible for us to afford bringing the performance here.”
國家劇院推廣主任古提雷斯說，票價刻意壓低，以吸引新的歌劇同好並和該市其他特色節目競爭。國家劇院有權在墨西哥分銷大都會國家歌劇院的節目，並已擴大到墨西哥另外8個城市。22歲的學生卡琳娜．裴德洛沙說：「如果你對歌劇一無所知，或從沒聽過，它可能令人裹足不前。」她正準備欣賞她的第一部歌劇、在國家劇院演出的華格納的《女武神》，這也是大都會歌劇院2010-2011這季的壓軸好戲。古提雷斯說：「大都會歌劇院可以不惜血本請來世上一流劇團；這也是這種歌劇不可能到墨西哥演出的原因，即使他們巡迴演出，我們也付不起錢請他們到這裡現場演出。」
For Marcelo Perez, who lives on a monthly pension of $380, the Met simulcasts offer him a chance to enjoy the art form he fell in love with after watching a local company's performance of Verdi's “La Traviata” in 1970 at Mexico City's Palacio de Bellas Artes. In this picture taken May 11, 2011, Perez looks for programs of Operas he attended at Mexico City's National Auditorium at his home in Mexico City.
對每個月靠380美元養老金過活的佩雷斯，紐約大都會歌劇院現場同步直播給他一個機會，可以享受那個自從他1970年在墨西哥市國家藝術宮看了本地劇團演出的威爾第《茶花女》後，就深深著迷的一種表演藝術。在這張攝於今年5月11日的照片中，佩雷斯正在他位於墨西哥市的家中展示他在該市國家劇院聆賞過的歌劇節目單。（美聯社）