Met Opera at Lincoln Center, NYC, Streams Lincoln in the Bardo Free on YouTube

The Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center is offering a free worldwide livestream of Lincoln in the Bardo, the world-premiere opera by composer Missy Mazzoli with a libretto by Royce Vavrek. It goes live on the Met's YouTube channel on November 14 at 8pm, during the final performance of a sold-out run.

The opera adapts George Saunders's Booker Prize-winning novel. It is a ghost story set in Abraham Lincoln's Washington in 1862, during the Civil War.

Met general manager Peter Gelb said that with the last performances of the run completely sold out, the company decided to share the production for free with its global audience. TheaterMania reports that this is the first broadcast of its kind for the Met on YouTube, and that it supports the company's $1.5 billion Make the Met Forever fundraising campaign.

Viewers who can't watch live have more time. The recording remains available on YouTube through midnight ET on November 18. Starting November 20, it will be offered on Met Opera on Demand through a range of paid viewing options.

For readers in Japan, or anywhere else, the stream is a way to see a new American opera from its premiere production without traveling to Lincoln Square. All that's needed is the Met's YouTube link.

(Details are drawn from points that agree across reports by Time Out New York, TheaterMania.)