Some of The Oxford Blue’s readership may have recently found themselves spending more time than usual indoors, searching the cupboards and internet for things to do. To combat the possible boredom that the next few months may be tinged with, The Blue has decided to compile a list of cultural events that can be experienced from the comfort of the outfit that you have been wearing for the past five days.

This is but a tiny selection of the ocean of live and not-so-live (dead?) streams available at the moment. Whilst these ones are free, there are many that can be watched for a small cost, and subscriptions to streaming services abound.

Opera

Perhaps isolation will prove the perfect opportunity to catch-up on some opera?

The Vienna State Opera have opened up a vast catalogue of opera, releasing one a day. Available at https://www.staatsoperlive.com/live

The MET Opera are releasing daily archive video streams updated each evening (11:30pm). Ideal for watching with friends. Why not set up a video call, and a bowl of twiglets (it’s all that the supermarket had left) and watch it with your estranged friends? Available at https://www.metopera.org/user-information/nightly-met-opera-streams/

The Royal Opera House are releasing weekly opera to Facebook via live stream on Friday at 7:00pm. Following their Facebook page will notify you of this on the day, along with a stream not dissimilar to Classic FMs (though slightly less unrelenting). Available at https://www.facebook.com/royaloperahouse

Dance

Sadler’s Wells have a digital program of family and elders dance workshops, along with complete dance performances available weekly. Available at https://www.sadlerswells.com/whats-on/2020/digital-stage/?fbclid=IwAR1dY0ltd7j0TmmJZLeq1sU9eKbWUklykr_CP_LlXh_Y2G9Ud8RVi3XS6xs

Music

The Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra has offered free access to many of its archived concert recordings, if the code ‘BERLINPHIL’ is redeemed on their site before the 31st March. They offer a broad range of criteria with which to refine your search, for once allowing you to only watch music conducted by your favourite conductor. Available at https://www.digitalconcerthall.com/en/news

Art

The Guggenheim Museum (New York) offers a rather disturbing view of the gallery over Google Street View. Whilst I wouldn’t recommend this for actually viewing the art, it’s quite fun for a few moments clicking around the gallery. Available at https://artsandculture.google.com/streetview/solomon-r-guggenheim-museum-interior-streetview/jAHfbv3JGM2KaQ?hl=en&sv_lng=-73.95894229280806&sv_lat=40.78286910233366&sv_h=22.258746283045625&sv_p=-25.59827254490817&sv_pid=JBpyxfi2ylwqb8AtMeDUww&sv_z=0.2739310462916821

The British Museum has an extremely… well… impressive interactive section that allows you to scroll through history, clicking on cultural objects as far back as 20,000bc. Its not really my thing, but if you have a passion for websites with gradually undulating backgrounds, or learning (I don’t know), this is the website for you. Available at https://britishmuseum.withgoogle.com/

The Tate Modern have also got a ‘Street View’ thing, but I couldn’t actually find any art. A brief look in the gift shop shows that the photos were taken in a time before Olafur Eliasson’s ‘little suns’ bred in art galleries across the world, but I couldn’t glean much more than that. Perhaps you might have more luck? Available at https://artsandculture.google.com/streetview/tate-modern/1AFwKJMyRicHcQ?sv_lng=-0.0997395&sv_lat=51.5077171&sv_h=175.2904488929274&sv_p=-9.501447299796709&sv_pid=6n402dXuuDyL9lCes1mVHA&sv_z=1.0000000000000002

Theatre

The National Theatre will be live streaming one show a week to YouTube. Starting on Thursday 2nd April (today) with One Man Two Guvnors featuring James Corden. Available at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUDq1XzCY0NIOYVJvEMQjqw

Hampstead Theatre have weekly shows posted to their website. Available at https://www.hampsteadtheatre.com/whats-on/hampstead-theatre-at-home

YouTube

Jimmy Fallon has been releasing strangely endearing home-spun videos onto his YouTube channel with a range of guest from Kim Kardashian to ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic. Available at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-Th83bH_thdKZDJCrn88g

Jimmy Kimmel is doing the same, making us wonder, which Jimmy came first, and just importantly, which Jimmy got their 6(ish) year old daughter to play their intro first. Available at https://www.youtube.com/user/JimmyKimmelLive