Opera Enormous: Arias in the Cinema

    For this thesis, I ask why people are coming to the Grand, a local independent cinema in Maine, for the Metropolitan Opera Live in HD simulcasts?  I take the reader through historical and critical context of the program and the Grand along with framing the simulcasts as either media events, phenomenological experiences and/or performance rituals for audience members.  Finally, I ask how can this research inform the Grand about its programming decisions?
    At the Grand it is evident there is a desire for quality programming that is embedded in previously established traditions and culture.  The quality of the program is important, but the tradition, the ritual and the shared event are equally important.  The event that surrounds the opera simulcasts reveals an audience that enjoys commiserating over a common passion.  We can also learn that there is a ritual or repetitive structure that audiences enjoy participating in.  The audience members become performers in the ritual, and enjoy seeing familiar faces that they can share their experience with.  This is relevant in other programming that has successfully returned and over time has become a tradition for the theater and the audience base that supports it.  The clout that the Met brings to the program is important, as is the nostalgia that the Grand venue offers, but giving the Grand audience world class programming that becomes a shared traditional practice is even more useful in selecting programming, whether it be live or Live in HD.