It's fashionable to bemoan what's happened to the record industry, especially in classical music. Well, yes, things have changed, not all of it good for either the artists or the industry itself. But I want to shout out my praise of modern technology. Have you checked out what's becoming increasingly available in terms of fabulous videos of opera and concerts?

Although I am a great fan of live performances, there are many advantages in the best productions on video, especially on Blu-ray discs. (For video nerds, a friend in the recording business tells me there are already a half-dozen operas released on 4K ultra-high-definition discs.)

True: no recordings can capture the thrill of live sound. But excellent camerawork can, among other revelations, highlight the brilliant orchestration of, say, a Mahler symphony. A camera can direct my attention to details I might miss without a close-up of, say, that horn player giving his all.

The joy expressed by performers sharing their love of their music is a large part of the thrill I get as a fellow music lover. No seat in the audience can give you such intimate access as such videos. (Okay, so maybe we don't always want to see Jessye Norman's tonsils shaking up a sublime Strauss song!)

And how many of us can afford to pay for a seat at the opera? Or relish the hassle of getting there, paying $20 for parking, and then driving home in the rain late at night? Modern technology can democratize fine art! Given adequate audiovisual equipment, we can experience Wagner's Ring at home for a tiny fraction of the cost and effort of attending live shows.

PBS, for example, will telecast the glorious new, all-Black opera, Fire Shut Up in My Bones on April 1 (check your local listings). I urge you not to miss this intensely moving depiction of a molested teenage Gay boy's struggle to become a man in a super-macho Black community. This opera first came to us, live and in HD and excellent surround sound, at local cinemas for little more than the price of a movie.

Fifteen years ago, the Metropolitan Opera saw the potential of live satellite transmission and opened access to the best of its performances to fans in more than 70 countries. As a Columbia College student, I used to pay $2 for a standing spot at the old Met in the late '50s. Now, three thousand miles away, I'm back at the Met! What a gift! (For a schedule of these Live in HD shows, go to metopera.org. PBS telecasts these same shows about 5-6 months later.)

Another tech democratizer is, of course, streaming. Few people know that the Met has its own radio station on Sirius XM satellite radio: opera and song, 24/7 on channel 355! For less than the cost of a movie ticket, get a month of nonstop historic and live broadcasts from the Met's stage and archives, back to the early '30s.

The Met also has a video platform called Met Opera on Demand. It ain't cheap, but you get every radio and televised program from its beginnings, including a superb video of Leontyne Price's unforgettable farewell performance as Verdi's Aida. I get teary just thinking of the ovation, and her reaction to it, after polishing off the aria "O Patria Mia," with a perfect pianissimo high C that went on forever, just like the ovation that wouldn't stop.

Then there's YouTube. Offering seemingly limitless access to complete operas, movies, and concerts — as well as instructions on how to unclog your toilet — YouTube soon learns your interests and begins to suggest items, often hitting the bull's eye. One of my more esoteric tastes is for baroque, mechanical-action pipe organs. YouTube took me by the hand and showed me an astounding cache of superbly recorded videos of tracker-action organs, played by an assortment of excellent organists. Last week it showed me a hilarious, silly European production of Mozart's Don Giovanni that was nonetheless musically superb. Nothing like seeing a Eurotrash production of this opera to make you appreciate a good one! (Eurotrash is where the stage director is god and has free reign to show off his or her complete disregard for what the music says, giving us absurd settings and even sometimes changing the story.)

I have written previously in the SGN about the sonic and visual virtues of the best Blu-ray discs. They offer, for the first time, completely uncompressed audio (much better than CDs) and video (especially UHD 4K discs).

On a personal note, because of where I live, they give me even more. I live with my husband in bliss on Whidbey Island. Given ferry service that has been severely crippled by COVID-related staff shortages, we're a rather remote from the cultural advantages of the Big City. But the flood of excellent Blu-ray opera and concert recordings that have virtually replaced the fading CD market makes our location irrelevant.

Our priorities put a state-of-the-art home theater above expensive clothes, watches, cars, etc. Thus, even on a limited income, these Blu-rays and modern streaming give us unending pleasure on a 60" OLED TV and killer sound system. Whether it's Lord of the Rings or Mahler's 8th Symphony (with indeed over a thousand performers under conductor Gustavo Dudamel), we want for nothing... thanks to modern tech.

Amen.