Patrons Caught Watching TV at Houston's Grand Opera
But who can blame them?  No, that's not a comment about the opera, but on the Houston Grand Opera's innovative OperaVision technology.

Opera companies in many places -- New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago to name a few -- have used video monitors for latecomers, who can cool their heels in the lobby areas and keep up with the action until an appropriate time to be seated.

But only in Houston can the audience find monitors inside the theater itself.  In fact, the two upper tiers of the Brown Theater have been equipped with plasma monitors and projection screens since 1999. Bruce Bryant, a seasoned television director, choreographs three camera operators with long zoom lenses, enabling each opera to get its own special video treatment.  Performers and the downstairs audience see nothing of the technology.

Close-ups of the performers' faces and translated subtitles help many visitors understand what is going on.  Others find the monitors distracting and out of place.

According to the New York Times (Sept. 18, 2002), David Gockley, the general director of the Houston Grand Opera, finds opera people "very traditional creatures" who don't like to see change, but that some changes are necessary for a "boutique market" such as opera to compete with broader, popular art and entertainment forms.

Link to the Houston Grand Opera

Read the New York Times article