Those of us still bemused by the complexities of our first lives would
probably rather not know about Second Life – the virtual online “world” that
was launched (by hip Californians, naturally) in 2003 and now boasts more
than eight million subscribers (or “residents”) around the globe. But if you
are a classical music lover, you may soon find yourself joyously embracing
this whimsical new addition to the realms of human discourse, or pretend
discourse. Next month, Second Life will host its first live professional
orchestral performance.
It is the intrepid Royal Liverpool Philharmonic that has taken this brave
plunge into cyberspatial concert-giving. And if the phenomenal response to
its initiative is any guide – 10,000 requests for the 100 “virtual” tickets
on offer – Second Life would seem to be one way for orchestras to
disseminate their music-making on a massively enhanced scale without budging
from the concert hall. Or, in this case, the virtual concert hall.
How will it work? Well, on September 14 the RLPO will launch its new season in
Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, as usual, with a lively programme of Ravel,
Rachmaninov and two world premieres (Kenneth Hes-keth and John McCabe)
conducted by its sparky young Russian maestro, Vasily Petrenko. But, even as
real punters enjoy the sight and sound of real musicians in the real hall, a
parallel event will take place in the parallel universe that is Second Life
(where participants can buy and sell goods, interact with other people, and
visit all sorts of venues great and small).
The RLPO has purchased an entire “island” on the website. This means that the
performance of the orchestra can be streamed into a virtual,
three-dimensional mock-up of Philharmonic Hall, where online punters will be
allocated a seat, buy a virtual ice-cream in the interval, allegedly
experience the collective pleasure of the concert experience, and even chat
to their fellow punters and Petrenko (via his online caricature, or
“avatar”) in the bar afterwards.
It seems a lot of trouble to go to just to reach a hundred extra people –
which, for technical reasons, is the maximum number possible. (The trouble
is that the audio quality of live streamed music goes down as numbers go
up.) However, from the day after the concert the RLPO is making the
experience available on a two-hour loop to all Second Life residents for a
period of three months.
Is this the future for classical music? It’s easy to be sceptical. Looking
round the average audience for a classical concert, I don’t see many people
who strike me as avid adventurers in cartoonish virtual worlds. But perhaps
that’s the point. The core business of orchestras will always be supplying a
thrilling experience to its live audience in the hall. But that has never
stopped them from disseminating their music-making at the same time through
recordings and broadcasts.
The RLPO’s Second Life experiment is just a high-tech extension of that, with
the added bells and whistles of cartoon characters and a recognisable
concert-hall environment. If it smacks of a marketing gimmick more than a
serious venture into the online streaming of music, well, what’s wrong with
that?
Besides, it’s not the only online experiment that is interesting the music
world. Last month one of Europe’s glitziest festivals, Verbier, took a
similarly bold plunge into cyberspace. In conjunction with Medici Arts, the
media company, it offered a live online video streaming of nearly all its
concerts, plus a website allowing people to revisit performances (and watch
backstage interviews) for a month after the festival ended.
What’s interesting is that Verbier attracts the biggest names in the
classical-music firmament, from Renée Fleming and Martha Argerich to James
Levine and Evgeny Kissin. With a couple of exceptions they all agreed to the
live streaming – once they were assured that it wasn’t possible for online
viewers to download (and thus preserve) the performances. In other words,
the project wouldn’t pose a threat to either their record sales or (if the
live performances had blemishes) their reputations.
The result? About 40,000 people came to the concerts in Verbier during the
17-day festival. But more than 150,000 hit the website and stayed for more
than 20 minutes to sample the music. (Ravi Shankar, thousands of miles away,
even phoned his daughter Anoushka in the interval of her concert with Joshua
Bell to tell her his opinion.) That sort of statistic is the reason why the
music business is getting so excited about the internet.
Nearly all of classical music’s biggest performing organisations now offer the
potential to download recordings or live performances via their websites.
But some have gone much farther with new technology, refuting outdated moans
that they are too stuffy, elitist or hampered by restrictive union
agreements to move with the times. The Metropolitan Opera in New York has
had so much success with its scheme to transmit high-definition live videos
of its performances simultaneously to cinemas across the United States and
abroad that the number of participating cinemas has doubled (to 500) this
year – and they now include 30 in the UK.
And next week the Philharmonia Orchestra in London launches a monthly video
podcast series – each presented by a member of the orchestra, featuring an
interview and a guide to the music in its current repertoire. The
Philharmonia already has a website that gets 1.5 million hits a year and is
about to launch a new piece of music software that will allow anyone in the
world to compose and mix their own music, using 17,000 free orchestral sound
samples provided by the orchestra.
Will the tail end up wagging the dog? While British orchestras pour so much
effort into wooing online punters in Lahore or Lagos, will formerly loyal
concertgoers in London or Liverpool decide that they, too, might as well put
their feet up at home and enjoy the “virtual” concert on their computers?
It’s a risk, but a small one. After all, Premier League stadiums are packed
week after week, even though nearly every big football match can now be
viewed at home, one way or another. Nothing can match the tingle of “being
there” when talented people create something beautiful or exciting. The
tele-vised experience only sharpens the desire to experience the real thing.
Anyway, my children tell me that Second Life is very passé these days. That’s
the trouble with “new media”. By the time the mainstream catches on, it’s
old hat.
°The RLPO performs at Philharmonic Hall and in Second Life on
September 14. For tickets in this life 0151-709 3789; in Second Life, www.liverpoolphil.com
It rests its head on your shoulders and whispers in your ear
