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| January 13, 2007 |
| Placido Domingo _ on the big screen |
That's the new role the superstar tenor is playing on Saturday at more than 100 movie theaters in the United States, Canada and Norway that are showing a live performance from the Metropolitan Opera — for little more than the price of a movie ticket.
In high definition, starting at 1:30 p.m. EST, Domingo will be performing the lead role of Oscar award-winning composer Tan Dun's "The First Emperor," which the 65-year-old singer premiered on the Met stage last month.The simulcast opera at movie theaters is part of an effort by Peter Gelb, the Met's new general manager, to popularize opera and draw bigger audiences to actual performances. (The Met sold only 77 percent of available tickets last season, down from 93 percent in 1999-2000.)
But it seems the Met at the movies is selling like hot cakes.Theaters nationwide showing a simulcast of Mozart's "The Magic Flute" on Dec. 30 reached 91 percent capacity, on average, selling out in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Miami and Washington, D.C.
"The First Emperor" is the third of six Met movie-theater simulcasts this season."We're already an aging art form and we now have to make sure we are undertaking initiatives like this that will create audience development ... and connect the Met generally with its local, national and global fan base in a way that has not been possible previously," said Gelb, who took over the Met from Joseph Volpe last year.
He also has initiated broadcasts over the Internet and on digital radio.
While Met box-office figures for the current season are not in yet, it appears the high-tech, long-distance reach is paying off: All nine actual performances of "First Emperor" are sold out. So now, the only way to see Domingo as he performs the emperor's part is at the movies, in the 124th role of his career.The next movie theater simulcast is Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin" on Feb. 24, starring Renee Fleming and Dmitri Hvorostovsky and conducted by Valery Gergiev. |
posted by viraks @ 6:34:00 AM  |
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