Met's success has orchestras tuning up their simulcasts

The idea keeps catching on - even if audiences are still catching up.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic is preparing for its second live movie-theater simulcast on Sunday - only a week after Carmen in 3-D leapt from London's Royal Opera and a few weeks before the English National Opera's 3-D Lucrezia Borgia arrives on DirecTV. More quietly, the Philadelphia Orchestra continues on an alternate route, eschewing satellite technology for the Internet in the seventh of a series of nine simulcasts March 20.

The music world can't help but be dazzled by the Metropolitan Opera's recently released simulcast numbers: The nine transmissions in the 2009-10 season sold 2.4 million tickets, grossed $48 million, and eventually made a net profit of $8 million for the opera company.

Yet the question of translating 19th-century art into a 21st-century visual culture remains unanswered for symphony orchestras, especially Los Angeles', which follows in the Met's footsteps with simulcasts in 450 of the same theaters - without the Met's eye candy or culturally ingrained tradition of Saturday-afternoon radio broadcasts.

"Costumes, tenors and animals, that's an easy translation to a visual form," said Los Angeles Philharmonic president Deborah Borda. "We have a different kind of product . . . but it's a work in progress and we'll develop it over time." Her trump cards are the Frank Gehry-designed Disney Hall and conductor Gustavo Dudamel, who has screen presence and more name recognition than any conductor since Leonard Bernstein.

The first simulcast in January was an all-orchestral program of John Adams and Beethoven hosted by TV, stage and recording star Vanessa Williams. On Sunday, the music is inspired by Shakespeare and enjoys a marketing synergy with a just-released, Dudamel-conducted CD of the same program. Thanks to its close proximity to Hollywood, Sunday's simulcast will feature Shakespearean characterizations by the likes of Orlando Bloom and Malcolm McDowell.

"We've done quite a few TV shows, and at this point, it makes sense for us," said Borda after the January simulcast. "Will we change the future? We might. I've gotten close to 100 texts from people throughout the country talking about how good the sound was."