The success of the Metropolitan Opera’s high-definition movie theatre simulcasts notwithstanding, William Littler says that there’s just no substitute for the power of a live Met performance. “The deadliest criticism of opera has long been that it is too expensive to be anything but caviar for the elite… [But] the reason people are gladly buying tickets at such prices is that they are not just watching a movie, they are participating vicariously in a live event.”