Georges Bizet’s Carmen Live to return to LA Opera

LA Opera will simulcast its season premiere production of Georges Bizet’s Carmen Live on Saturday, Sept. 23. This year’s transmission with be presented in two separate locations: one at the Santa Monica Pier, and another in Exposition Park south of campus.

For the fourth year in a row, the simulcast — billed as “Opera at the Beach” — has set up camp in Santa Monica. With help from Los Angeles County, the program eventually expanded to a second location last year in South Gate. With multiple locations, the company’s goal is to provide free, widespread access to opera to the community. This is the first year the simulcast will be presented at Exposition Park.

Rupert Hemmings, vice president of artistic planning, says that idea to simulcast productions has been “in the back of [their] minds” for a few years. Though initially difficult to get off the ground, the company is elated to be expanding so quickly, and to be teaming up with a variety of other partners and vendors. At its Exposition Park location (named “Opera in the Park”), food will be sold exclusively by Smorgasburg L.A. as the performance is happening.

“Ideally, we’ll always be at the [Santa Monica Pier] and at least one other venue,” Hemmings said. “We were planning up to four or five venues this year, although we had a few contracts that unfortunately fell apart. But we’d love to do up to five venues all around the county in the future.”

Though Carmen will be transmitted live from the stage, there is much planning that must occur weeks, even months, prior to the simulcast date. The first step requires finding the right location to host the big-screen event. This can be a challenge, Hemmings states, as there are only certain locations that can be considered.

“The first thing we look at is feasibility of the site, and then we look at the location, and whether or not it is easily accessible by public transportation or parking,” Hemmings said. “The way it works with where it goes next depends on which district is going to pay for it that year, because it is entirely funded by L.A. County. We ask the county to submit some choices to where it can go, and then my team and I go out and view the locations, and decide which ones can or cannot work.”

Eventually the time comes to actually filming the show and having it transmitted live as effortlessly as possible. For this, LA Opera tagged director Matthew Diamond to head the process of capturing the performance. With eight cameras, Diamond and his team prepare a shooting plan at a dress rehearsal in anticipation for the live event, often weeks in advance. Diamond decides which specific angles and camera shots should be used in the final product. Through live cutting, much like any live awards show or sporting event, the pieces are put together as smoothly as possible. The shots are written in sequence and organized, and are eventually connected to two satellites that go directly to the two parks during the performance.

“The process involves, firstly, learning what the opera is, and then I make a camera plan while watching the show,” Diamond said. “The rules of the road when it comes to shooting an opera, as opposed to an awards show or sporting event, are that you want to tell the story. You want to capture the performances at their very best, and you want to make choices that make sense to the scene — between seeing the entire stage, or going tight on a close-up, seeing reaction shots.”

Diamond also stated that with the popularity of live broadcasting, there are high expectations from audiences for perfection.

“As soon as an audience is looking at a screen, as opposed to live on stage, there is a set of expectations that they have because they’ve sat in front of screens their whole lives,” Diamond said. “They expect it go seamless, and for it to go to the right face at the right time in the right sized shot.”

Though admission is free, those interested in attending are encouraged to RSVP online through the company’s website. Carmen is set to broadcast on Sep. 23 at 7 p.m.