Simulcast – innovative word of the week

This word merges “broadcast” and “simultaneously”. In the past “simulcast” referred to  a simultaneous broadcast on radio or television, but today it usually means a  broadcast (whether live or not), shown simultaneously at several locations, often at movie houses or on big screens in theatres or at outdoor venues. The verb is “to simulcast”.

Here in Los Angeles, Gustavo Dudamel, the 30 year-old Venezuelan conductor of the local philharmonic theatre, has become a cultural icon and the darling of the musical world.

 

Today (March 13) I went to an IMAX theatre to see Dudamel conducting  the LA Philharmonic in a  live performance transmitted from the downtown Walt Disney Concert Hall (designed by architect Frank Geary), to big-screen movie theatres across the United States and Canada.

Exterior of Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles

 Interior

Dudamel conducted Tchaikovsky's three Overture-Fantasies inspired by Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet and The Tempest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksE5dYADFHM

Before each of the musical experiences, British actors, standing in front of the orchestra, performed excerpts from the three plays.

For a description of this blending of theatre and music, see "Reciting Shakespeare while admiring Dudamel", The Los Angeles Times, March 12, 2011

Dudamel himself spoke to the audience before the performance and answered questions at the conclusion.

Last year the San Francisco Opera broadcast a performance of Aida to 30,000 opera-lovers at an open-air ballpark. The press called it a “simulcast”, but in my opinion that is a misnomer, given that it was a live performance broadcast to a single venue.

This simulcast medium is increasingly being used to transmit operas, ballets and orchestral events to thousands of viewers across wide geographical expanses.

For further reading, see:

The Los Angeles Times music review, March 11, 2011

                                                                       Jonathan Goldberg