ABSTRACT
The most significant impact of the technology tidal wave on opera, as well as on other forms of live performance, comes in this aspect of mediated entertainment, its elimination of direct communication between human bodies. Live performance remains the paradigm for opera; radio and television broadcasts and many recordings tout themselves oxymoronically as “live” performances and even hold up that immediacy as a major selling point. Technology has had a profound impact on opera from the first days of the media explosion. The voice of Enrico Caruso was committed to records as early as 1902; these recordings soon became the most popular of the era, and they were in many ways responsible for the initial growth of the recording industry. Televised “live” opera performances work rather differently than these filmed operas, negotiating a strange compromise between mediated and unmediated performance.
