With the global pandemic that has been present since March of 2020, a multitude of outlets once easily available in our lives have been put on hold indefinitely. This includes many forms of in-person entertainment, such as live performances. The Metropolitan Opera has suspended live performances until at least September 2021, leading them to create “Nightly Met Opera Streams,” where they stream full productions from its archives over the past fourteen years.  Each day a production goes live at 7:30pm EST and remains on the website for twenty-three hours until 6:30pm the next day—approximately an hour before the next production will be live. Viewers can find these productions on the Met’s website at metopera.org or through the Met Opera on Demand App, where they can watch for free without having to subscribe. On Monday, November 9, 2020, the Met streamed a double feature of folktale one-acts that included a 2015 production of Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta and Béla Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle.

Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta is about Princess Iolanta, who has been blind since birth, but knows of neither her royal lineage or her blindness. Since she was young, her father, King René, had successfully hidden her and her blindness from the world, having her live in seclusion. His greatest fear is having Iolanta aware of the fact that she is blind, and therefore he seeks the help of a doctor to hopefully cure her of this ailment. To his dismay, the doctor reveals that the only way to begin treatment is to first reveal to her that she is blind—which her father refuses to do.  Soon after, two men named Robert and Vaudémont pass by Iolanta’s house, and Vaudémont quickly becomes infatuated with her. Vaudémont soon learns of Iolanta’s blindness, but still feels the same for her that he did initially. Upon learning that Vaudémont has made Iolanta aware of her blindness, King René declares that if her treatment does not give her sight, Vaudémont will be killed—although, if the treatment does heal her, he will give his blessing for Vaudémont and Iolanta to be wed.

Béla Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle centers around Judith, a woman who leaves her life behind to live with Bluebeard, a man surrounded by countless disturbing rumors and secrets. Though she fears what will become of her by pursuing him, Judith proceeds anyway, proclaiming her love to him and that by having her in his life, she would be a light in his home that has become acclimated to darkness. When she enters, she finds seven locked doors, which she demands to be opened one by one so that she can begin to see his inner self. Slowly each door is opened to reveal the cruel and twisted realities that come with Bluebeard, Judith finding herself more trapped in his web of horrors with every room she enters.

Even though the two productions may seem to be in no way connected, they are related through the themes of darkness and light, isolation, and the desire to see. Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta serves as the “lighter” of the two productions, showing all the themes through Iolanta and her blindness. Béla Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle serves as the “darker” and more depressing of the productions with Judith and her desire to see deeper into Bluebeard’s desolate life. It is an interesting choice to put the more positive plot first while having the second be one with a rather unhappy ending. Nevertheless, the placement is not that much of an issue where it makes the productions any less enjoyable to the viewer.

In addition, while opera lovers would still most likely prefer to experience these productions in-person, there are noticeable perks to watching from the vicinity of their own homes, including the ability to add English subtitles. Since operas are typically in languages other than English—as it is with both Iolanta and Bluebeard’s Castle, which are sung in Russian and Hungarian—this small feature aids in helping viewers to keep better track with the plot than if they were simply in the audience with a pamphlet that summarizes the plot. Along with the benefit of English subtitles, streaming operas for free has been able to further reach out to audiences that may not have engaged in this type of activity, if not for this unique moment in time where such cultural entertainment was so easily available to the general public. With the Met using past HD performances going back 14 years, the viewer is able to get a sense of what attending a real opera would be like through the actors, the plot, the stage, and the transitions into each scene, as well as even being able to hear the cheers of the audience that were there at the time it was filmed. 

There is no harm in immersing oneself in something of culture, and since the Met has made their opera productions so easily accessible to the public, they have potentially helped many in culminating a new quality hobby during this time of indefinite uncertainty.