MusicalAmerica.com, linking to an article in The Economist, says that the Metropolitan Opera’s live HD broadcasts are performing as intended: bringing new audiences to opera — and lowering the snobbish perception of the Met itself.

Last year, over 600 theaters around the world showed the Met’s eight live HD broadcasts to more than 920,000 people in 23 countries. The Met says it broke even.

Of course, more companies, including La Scala and the San Francisco Opera, have jumped in. (The Met’s head, Peter Gelb, is said to be using some hardball tactics on singers: If you appear in someone else’s broadcasts, the report goes, don’t expect to appear again at the Met.) Too much supply can potentially weaken audiences, and there are those who feel opera is best seen at a slight remove.

But one piece of evidence indicates that the pro-broadcast side has the right of it: Gérard Mortier, the head incoming head of New York City Opera, present head of the Opéra National de Paris, former head of the Salzburg Festspiel, and the promoter of some of the worst opera productions ever to assault the art form, is against HD.