As you might recall, the weather on New Year's Day was far from ideal. And that may be a good reason why most of the seats were empty that afternoon for a spectacular, 'live' Metropolitan Opera performance of Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel.

Shown on the giant Galaxy Cinema screen thanks to the modern marvel of satellite communications, this modern adaptation of the opera was a delight to behold, offering the local audience not only the equivalent of front-row seats at "the Met" but also some great backstage extras, among them interviews with the performers and a look at some of the fascinating costumes.

This Saturday, the Orangeville theatre and 100 others across Canada will have an 'encore' presentation of the opera, in reality a digital recording of the Jan. 1 performance that should be indistinguishable from the live performance.

This second season of Metropolitan Opera: Live in High Definition kicked off worldwide on Saturday, December 15, with the first of the Met's eight live opera transmissions, Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, starring Anna Netrebko and Roberto Alagna, which was conducted by the internationally famed tenor Plácido Domingo.

Orangeville's Galaxy is among the more than 600 venues in North America, Australia, Europe and Japan participating in the Met's groundbreaking series during the 2007-08 season - triple last year's number. A press release on the series said the "significant global expansion" is expected to lead to the series reaching a world audience of up to 1 million patrons.

Ticket sales to the general public began in Canada last November. The Canadian showings in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec are thanks to a renewed partnership with Cineplex Entertainment, and eight locations in the Atlantic Provinces are participating through a renewed partnership with Empire Theatres.

The world-wide showings are part of the Met's ingenious efforts to reinvigorate opera and reach out to a broader public.

Last year's inaugural season, featuring six operas, led a Los Angeles Times reviewer to remark that the experiment of merging film with live performance "has created a new art form."

The 2006-07 series enjoyed critical acclaim and global box office success, attracting an audience of more than 325,000 attendees.

The Met says the current season is expected to draw audiences of more than 150,000 globally for each live transmission.

The concept of reaching opera audiences live was inspired David Bowie's 2003 live- via-satellite "Reality" album launch. In its inaugural year, the Met became the largest producer of alternative content, attracting the largest in-cinema audience ever for any such live events in movie theatres.

From planning to launch, the project took just one year.

Although we're nearing the end of January, local music lovers can still take in seven of the eight operas. There'll be an encore performance of Verdi's Macbeth (live on Jan. 12) on Saturday, Feb. 9.

The following Saturday, Feb. 16, will see a live performance of Puccini's Manon Lescault, which will be rerun March 1.

Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes is next in line, with a live performance March 15 and an encore March 29.

The Met will welcome spring with the high point of the season, a five-hour-long performance of Richard Wagner's Tristan and Isolde, which will have a real Canadian touch, the title role being played by the leading Tristan of our time, Ben Heppner, as half of what's described as "the archetypal couple, on their mystical journey of love, sex, and death." Although the other operas start at 1 p.m. EST and each run about two hours, this one is to be launched at 12:30 and include two intermissions. The encore performance is to be on April 12.

The final two operas are Puccini's La Bohéme on April 5 (encore May 3) and Donizetti's La Fille du Regiment, live on April 26 and encored May 10.

As you might suspect, all the productions include subtitles, which for Hansel and Gretel - sung in English - were perfectly synchronized.

Tickets for the individual operas cost $19.95 plus GST ($16.95 for seniors and children 12 and under), and you can still get a five-opera package at savings of about 10 per cent.

It all makes you wonder why the Torontobased Canadian Opera Company hasn't planned something similar, if only to fill in the "blank" Saturdays.