The big man of opera is getting a fitting tribute at a small cinema in the Austrian capital. Between October 4th and 28th you can catch a big screen tribute to the recently deceased Italian tenor in what is described as ‘Opern-Kino: In memoriam Pavarotti‘ (or Opera Cinema: Remembering Pavarotti) at the 1. Wiener Opern-Cinema, better known as Bellaria KINO in Vienna. Pavarotti fans will be treated to a collection of a dozen famous performances:
Anlässlich seines Todes am 6. September diesen Jahres widmet das Opern- Kino dem Tenor einen Pavarotti-Schwerpunkt. Zwölf Opernaufftritte und -filme werden im Bellaria ausgestrahlt.
Die Auswahl reicht von Verdis “Rigoletto”, über “La Boheme” und “Il Tabarro” bis “Hoffmanns Erzählungen” von Offenbach. Aufgezeichnet wurden die Opernproduktionen unter anderem in der Mailänder Scala oder in der Metropolitan Opera in New York.
So while it is from the Metropolitan, it won’t be the live from Metropolitan screenings that sparked the massive new interest in alternative content. For just 13 euro up to 163 opera lovers at a time can cram in to see what the world has lost.
Incidentally, if you have not read Walter Murch’s great piece on how cinema overtook opera as the ultimate art (Wagner’s Gesamtkunstwerk) here is your chance to do it now: A Digital Cinema of the Mind? Could Be. It really is one of the best pieces about the past and future of cinema ever written.
