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The Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts are a regular series of weekly broadcasts on network radio of full-length opera performances. They are transmitted live from the stage of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. The Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network airs the live performances on Saturday afternoons while the Met is in season, typically beginning the first Saturday in December, and totaling just over 20 weekly performances through early May. The Met broadcasts are the longest-running continuous classical music program in radio history,〔(Official site )〕 and the series has won several Peabody Awards for excellence in broadcasting. The series is currently broadcast on over 300 stations in the United States, and stations in 40 countries on 5 continents. These countries include Canada, Mexico, 27 European countries, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay, China, and Japan.〔(Metropolitan Opera Radio Station Finder )〕 The broadcasts are also listenable online via streaming audio;〔(Metropolitan Opera via Streaming Audio )〕 and select broadcasts and excerpts are listenable year-round on the "Met Opera on Demand" service〔("Met Opera on Demand" ) On-demand video and audio〕〔Tsioulcas, Anastasia. ("The Metropolitan Opera Anytime — And Anywhere — You Want It" ). ''NPR Classic'' (blog). March 15, 2012.〕 and on the free online service Rhapsody.〔(The Met ) on Rhapsody〕 ==History== The Met's radio broadcast history dates back to 1910, when radio pioneer Lee De Forest transmitted — experimentally, with erratic signal — two live partial performances from the stage of the Met, which were reportedly heard as far away as Newark, New Jersey. The first of these was a performance of Acts II and III of ''Tosca'' on January 12, 1910, starring Antonio Scotti as Scarpia. The following evening, January 13, 1910, parts of ''Pagliacci'' starring Enrico Caruso were broadcast. The first network broadcast was heard on Friday, December 25, 1931: a performance of Engelbert Humperdinck's ''Hänsel und Gretel''. The series was created as the Met, financially endangered in the early years of the Great Depression, sought to enlarge its audience and support through national exposure on network radio. In the first broadcast season only ''Hänsel und Gretel'' and Das Rheingold (February 26, 1932) were presented in their entirety; most operas were only heard partially. From the start of the 1933-34 season, complete opera broadcasts became the norm. Since 1931 most broadcasts have been of Saturday matinee performances, with only a handful of exceptions such as the opening night of the new Met, which featured a broadcast of Samuel Barber's ''Antony and Cleopatra'' on Friday September 16, 1966. The live radio broadcasts were originally heard on NBC, and became a staple of its Blue Network. Starting in 1944 the series continued on the Blue Network's successor, ABC, through 1958. From 1958 to 1960 the series was broadcast on CBS.〔(Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network Broadcast History )〕〔Godfrey, Donald G. and Frederic A. Leigh, eds. (''Historical Dictionary of American Radio.'' ) Greenwood Publishing, 1998. p. 257.〕 As network radio waned with the rise of television, the Met founded its own independent Metropolitan Opera Radio Network in 1960, which is now heard on radio stations around the world. The Met's first live closed-circuit television transmission was ''Carmen'' with Rise Stevens, sent to 31 movie theaters in 27 US cities on December 11, 1952. In Canada the live broadcasts have been heard since December 1933, first on the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission.〔(Phonothèque québécoise ), accessed January 21, 2008〕 Since 1934 they have been heard on the CRBC's successor, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, where they currently air on CBC Radio 2 on ''Saturday Afternoon at the Opera''. In the late 1930s and early 1940s the broadcasts were transmitted live via shortwave to Latin America over the NBC White Network. Transcription discs made by NBC were also sent to Latin America for relay over local radio stations in much better quality. Some of these discs survive. Spanish and Portuguese commentary and intermission features were inserted for Spanish-speaking countries.〔(Network Histories – The Texaco-Metropolitan Opera Network )〕 In December 1990, the broadcast series expanded its transmission to include Europe, via satellite transmission and the European Broadcasting Union.〔Oestreich, James R. ("Met Opera Live on Radio in Europe. ) ''New York Times''. December 8, 1990.〕 Australia and New Zealand joined the network in the late 1990s; Brazil and Mexico in 1999. Uruguay, Ecuador, and Japan joined in 2000. Technical quality of the broadcasts steadily improved over the years. FM broadcasts were added in the 1950s, transmitted to stations via telephone lines. With the arrival of 1973-74 broadcasting season (December 1973), all broadcasts were offered in FM stereo. Satellite technology later allowed uniformly excellent broadcast sound to be sent live worldwide. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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