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“ THE ARTISTS WILL BE PERFORMING LITERALLY ON A WORLD STAGE” ALEX BEARD, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, ROYAL OPERA HOUSEIn fact, the reverse may be true. “It’s bringing in an audience that’s lapsed or that otherwise might not attend,” says Keith. “We then find those people stay and will come and see other things.”Those who are already frequent attenders tend to go to cinema broadcasts in addition to live events, not as an alternative. “No-one regards it as being a substitute for being in the same theatre, sharing the same molecules as someone sings their hearts out,” says Beard. “But the experience people have in the cinema is one of being transported and engaged.” Keith agrees: “The audience should have as good an experience, albeit a different experience.”It used to be that performances would be recorded for archive purposes by a single camera placed at the back of the auditorium. The resultant videos would be flat and lifeless, squashing a show’s theatrical spirit. Had they been shown in a cinema, they’d have put audiences off for good. Now, producers have figured out how to make a trade-off between the art of cinema and the art of live performance, creating a hybrid that does justice to both.“We’ve learnt a lot about how to balance, on the one hand, capturing the patterns and the movement and, on the other hand, doing what cinema is good at and lasering in on the intense, up-close emotion,” says Beard, who is delighted also by the educational opportunities that screenings make possible. At NT Live, a dedicated camera director develops a filming script, does two camera rehearsals and invites the whole creative team to a test screening. Before the broadcast, lighting must be tweaked, costumes re-assessed and actors fitted with radio mics. All the preparation is in order to keep the event genuinely live, something that is central to the concept. “Anything could happen,” says Keith. “Actors might miss a cue, a camera might not be working properly and you have to be able to respond in the moment without it affecting the audience – just like a stage managerin the theatre would. “This isn’t a record for posterity; this is a capture of that performance on that evening and it’s important for us to share that frisson and electricity.”LIGHTS, CAMERA,ACTIONTraditional favourites predominate among the best-selling live showingsTHEATREHamlet starring Benedict Cumber-batch (above) is the most popular NT Live screening to date, seen by more than 690,000 people worldwide. An amazing 87% of UK cinemas showed it live when it aired from the Barbican in October 2015.BALLETThe Royal Ballet’s The Nutcracker listed among the top ten films of the week when it was broadcast on 8 December 2016.OPERAThe Royal Opera’s Otello, starring Jonas Kaufmann, had its live screening on 28 June. It is one of the biggest hits of 2017 so far, with many screenings sold out – one venue even dedicated more than one screen.32IMAGES COURTESY OF NT LIVE. BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH: JOHAN PERSSONSTAGE TO SCREEN41The Arts Society ReviewAutumn 2017