The Dallas Opera is starting an online subscription streaming service.
Thedallasopera.tv launched Monday with a recital by mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard and “Vanished,” a three-part art film with tenor Russell Thomas, countertenor John Holiday and music by Gluck, Monteverdi and Janácek. In addition, “The Heart of the Song” with tenors Javier Camarena, Rolando Villazón and David Lomelí will be available from May 25-31.
Content will include full productions, including a 2019 staging of Mozart’s “Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute)” in a 1999 Peter Hall production starring bass Morris Robinson, sopranos Andrea Carroll and Jeni Houser, and tenor Paolo Fanale. The cost is $4.99 monthly, with premium content available on pay-per-view.
“We wanted to establish ourselves as a dual track opera company, and this gives us the ability to have not only what we have on stage at the Winspear with our main stage productions, but it also gives us an opportunity to present to a global audience,” Dallas Opera general director Ian Derrer said.
Content will be available from tdo network, which launched in February last year with music-related programming that includes talk-show format interviews with music director Emmanuel Villaume, a cooking show with soprano Elza van den Heever and “Late Nite With Liz” with soprano Elizabeth Sutphen.
“We’re able to give people an insight to their personal lives,” Derrer said.
David Lomelí, a tenor who is the company’s artistic consultant and the newly appointed chief artistic officer of the Santa Fe Opera, said about 300 hours of content will be available at the start.
“We want to address a lot of the backstage, a lot of the fandom experience,” he said. “What we’re planning to do is a lot of original for the digital stage commissions, either miniseries or recitals or music-making sessions that were exclusively directed for the screen.”
The Dallas Opera model takes a different approach than Metropolitan Opera on Demand, an online subscription streaming service of video and audio of past performances, and the Vienna State Opera, which launched a daily stream of an opera or ballet performance.
“We wanted to try something new and we wanted to be able to host it in a way that allows us to take the content that we already had and then allow different categories for future content programing, as well,” Derrer said.
Ronald Blum, The Associated Press