Commentary : Front-Row Seats at the Met : Will Opera Play on pay-per-view

Psst! Hey buddy, wanna see the Met gala? Only 35 bucks, and you can bring your friends.

You say there must be a catch? Well, you won’t actually be at the Met, but then if you’re not in New York, that’s not an option anyway. Think of it as “Being There, Too.”

It’s on cable pay-per-view. The cameras will be backstage, in the dressing rooms, everywhere. There’ll be intermission interviews with actual celebrity-type people, the sort who wouldn’t talk to you if you were there.

Why, it’ll be better than the real $2,500 seats. Trust me.

First steps are always tentative, and nobody is quite sure where this one is going. The Metropolitan Opera celebrates its 25th anniversary with a gala medley at Lincoln Center Monday night, and you, too, can see the show, courtesy of a heavyweight media consortium of Cablevision Systems, NBC, Polygram and Panasonic.

That’s if you have pay-per-view on your cable system.

This is the first time opera--or any performing arts--has been offered in the newest wonder market, and you can be sure that many arts organization and media executives will be watching closely, if nobody else.

Not that hopes aren’t high for a big audience. The experts disagree about whether or not the market--between 16 million and 19 million homes have pay-per-view--has reached the critical mass to support the project, but the Met, we are told, expects a six-figure profit from its cut.

Just how many of those homes will ante up for the gala--which airs on the West Coast at 4 in the afternoon, with a 30-minute pre-show and an instant replay of the whole thing at 8 p.m.--is open to much speculation.

Pro: It is a festive gala. First night, tuxes and minks, marking an important anniversary for opera buffs.

Con: It is a festive gala. It’s a place to be seen at , not to see. Sitting around the family set in formal wear, eating canapes, somehow doesn’t seem quite the same. (Better, maybe ... ?)

Pro: It is Luciano Pavarotti and Placido Domingo, together for the first time in an American opera house.

Con: It is Luciano Pavarotti and Placido Domingo, who already have been beamed--free--into American homes together (with Jose Carrerras) in the much-hyped, much-watched “Three Tenors” show this summer. Note also, that Pavarotti and Domingo are not actually performing together, unless they show up at the end among the “surprise” guests at Orlofsky’s “Fledermaus” ball.

Pro: This is three complete acts from famous operas, not a stand-and-sing circus.

Con: This is three complete acts from famous operas. You do get Act III of “Rigoletto,” with Pavarotti as the Duke; Act III of “Otello,” with Domingo and Justino Diaz reprising familiar Music Center Opera roles; and Act II of “Die Fledermaus,” a perennial New Year’s Eve offering. None of this is without video precedent, however, and it still places the emphasis squarely on star turns rather than dramatic coherence.

Pro: It is $35. If you go to opera, you know that’s a bargain.

Con: It is $35. The promoters are pushing the idea of opera buffs as demographically upscale, but the heart and future of opera audiences has always been in the cheap seats and standing-room crowd. (At least they haven’t figured out a way to charge per-viewer ... )

Pro: It’s live. Don’t wait for the word to get out, catch the excitement and see it first, as soon as anyone.

Con: It’s live. Opera has enormous, barely tapped potential in true video projects, but the live product is not designed for close-ups, as most television directors seem to believe. Costumes, make-up and sets that can be magical in the theater can be simply silly on the little screen, as the Met demonstrated many times in its more genuinely historic (and free) broadcast of the “Ring.”

If sufficient numbers of viewers do decide to tune in, that raises more questions about the future of televised opera, particularly in repertory and financing. Will stars in excerpt programs become essential in order to interest broadcasters? Will free telecasts disappear, or will these shows eventually air on PBS stations?

If the Met gala does not attract a good (read profitable) audience, will that chill further efforts to expand the presentation of opera? The cable industry, already less effective an arts presence than was hoped for several years ago, has been told that there will never be a more appealing event for the opera audience.

Beyond the gala glitter lies another relevant anniversary. On Oct. 15 the Met opens the 15th season of telecasts on PBS stations, with “Semiramide.” It’s the whole opera, with June Anderson, Marilyn Horne and Samuel Ramey, hosted by F. Murray Abraham, with the same producer--Peter Gelb--as the gala show ... and it’s free.

“The 25th Anniversary Gala at the Met” airs Monday at 4 p.m. and repeats at 8 p.m. via pay-per-view on most cable systems. The suggested retail price is $34.95. For details contact your local cable system.