A quiet but major revolution has taken place in classical music and opera in the past decade: By streaming events, many great institutions are finding vast new audiences. Streaming performances increases audiences far beyond ticket buyers and helps orchestras and operas understand how wide their audience actually is. In recent years, major institutions now offer video streaming (live and on demand) of major performances and either charge a fee or post them free. The listed sites offer video streams of their own productions; this is not intended as a comprehensive summary.
OPERA
Met Opera
New York’s Metropolitan Opera offers On Demand subscription plans at $14.99/month and $149.99/year for its library of over 750 performances, viewable on iOS devices, Apple TV, Android Roku and Samsung Smart TV. In addition, The Met: Live At Home provides streams of the Met's Live in HD series to viewers who do not live near a movie theater carrying those broadcasts.
OperaVision
Live/Demand
OperaVision brings together 29 partners from 17 countries and invites you to travel and discover the diversity of opera from wherever you want, whenever you want, for free.
PBS - Great Performances and Live at Lincoln Center
(or your local PBS station)
PBS offers an assortment of operas, concerts and dance performances under the Great Performances and Live from Lincoln Center banners. The search feature of the PBS site can help unearth video treasures. PBS's flagship NYC affiliate Channel 13 also offers video content.
Arte
The French/German cultural channel, Arte has a site for their live and On Demand streams of concerts and opera.
Culture Box
French TV’s site archives broadcasts of opera and classical events for a limited time.
Staatsoper.TV (Bayerische Staatsoper)
Free live streams of opera and ballet from Staatsoper Unter den Linden, the home of the Berlin State Opera.
Medici.tv
An inexhaustible supply of major concert, opera and ballet videos. Their coverage of the star-studded Verbier Festival every year alone is worth a subscription. Some content is free while the bulk is available at $12.99/month / $129/year.
San Francisco Opera
During the 2023-24 Season, the third performance of every opera will be available as a livestream. Tickets for each livestream performance are $27.50.
CLASSICAL MUSIC
Berlin Philharmonic
With over 40 live concerts in the season. It has also recently developed an archive of filmed performances.
Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Free live concert streaming, and a library of recorded performances and interviews, most available for free, but some available for purchase.
Gothenburg Symphony
The Swedish symphony orchestra streams almost all concerts live for free—seven or eight events monthly. A rich archive is available and particularly interesting are videos of encores by solo stars.
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra
Performances are streamed live throughout the season, and a library of recorded performances is available to view.
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall+, a subscription service, features concerts, operas, dance, and documentaries. "Live With Carnegie Hall" features free live streams and archived episodes, available on Carnegie Hall's website, as well as Facebook and Youtube.
92Y
All concerts are available to stream online, with the purchase of a ticket.
