New York, NY (December 30, 2006)—This holiday season, music lovers all over the world will experience the spectacle of live opera in their hometown movie theaters with the Metropolitan Opera’s transmission of its new English-language production of The Magic Flute on Saturday, December 30. The Magic Flute is the first broadcast of “Metropolitan Opera: Live in HD,” a groundbreaking series of opera performances to be transmitted live, in high-definition, into movie theaters in North America, Europe and Japan. Playing in approximately 150 movie theaters around the world, and in two large Kabuki theaters in Japan, the Flute broadcast is anticipated to reach a global audience of nearly 30,000 people. Prior to the transmission, 48 of the 60 theaters in the United States were sold out, not including walk-up sales today.
Future live transmissions from the Met are Bellini’s I Puritani starring Anna Netrebko (January 6), Tan Dun’s The First Emperor starring Plácido Domingo (January 13), Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin starring Renée Fleming and Dmitri Hvorostovsky (February 24), Rossini’s The Barber of Seville starring Juan Diego Flórez, Joyce DiDonato, and Peter Mattei (March 24), and Puccini’s Il Trittico featuring a stellar ensemble cast (April 28).
“This is an historic moment for us,” said Peter Gelb, the Met’s General Manager. “We’re harnessing digital technology to make the spectacle of live grand opera more broadly available. It’s part of the Met’s new efforts to propel opera back into the mainstream.”
A proven box office success, The Magic Flute is estimated to approach a total audience capacity of over 90% today, averaged across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Norway, and Japan. Distributed in the U.S. by National CineMedia, 48 out of 60 theaters sold out for the matinee broadcast, including venues in Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Miami and Washington, D.C. (12,200 tickets; 82% total capacity).
“We are thrilled that opera fans have responded so positively to this new concept. Tickets for the other operas in the series are selling at a good pace as well, and in fact there are already several sold-out locations for the January 6th performance of I Puritani,” said Tom Galley, National CineMedia’s chief operations and technology officer.
Distributed in the United Kingdom by City Screen, all 7 participating theaters sold out (1,569 tickets; 100% total capacity). Distributed in Canada by Cineplex Entertainment, 6 out of 28 Canadian theaters were sold out in advance of the transmission (4,200 tickets; 50% total capacity). In Norway, The World Opera Project sold out its historic World Theatre in Tromsø (220 tickets; 100% total capacity).
In Japan, Shochiku Co. is presenting The Magic Flute in Tokyo’s Kabuki-za kabuki theater and Kyoto’s Minami-za kabuki theaters, with a combined capacity of 3,500 on a delayed basis on December 31, New Year’s Eve, because of the 14-hour time difference between New York and Tokyo.
National CineMedia has announced an encore broadcast of The Magic Flute on January 23 in over 70 movie theaters nationwide. Danish cinema partner Nordisk Film will present taped performances of the entire series in theaters in Copenhagen and Aarhus, beginning January 7. New U.S. cinema partner, Emerging Pictures, will present taped performances of the entire series in select markets, including Tucson, AZ; Lincoln, NE; Key West, FL; and Martha’s Vineyard, MA. For more information on ticket sales for all participating venues, please visit http://www.metoperafamily.org/hdlive.
As the series progresses, additional theaters will be added. By the time The First Emperor is transmitted on Saturday, January 13, “Metropolitan Opera: Live in HD” will have the potential to reach over 40,000 audience members around the world per transmission.
“Although nothing is comparable to being at the Met for a live performance, these larger-than-life big-screen transmissions provide an alternative experience for our national and international constituency,” said Mr. Gelb, noting that it will be possible for approximately 250,000 people to attend the movie theater version of live opera during the course of the season, significantly extending the Met’s live audience.
The movie-theater initiative is made possible by new technology and is dependent upon movie theaters that have recently been outfitted with high-definition projection systems and satellite reception dishes. High definition provides a detailed image that is roughly equivalent to film.
Inside the Met, ten high-definition cameras are situated in various positions, including backstage, capturing the spectacle of the live performances and the behind-the-scenes action, including live dressing room interviews. Utilizing Dolby surround-sound, the high-definition images are transmitted into the digitally equipped movie theaters via five signals routed through four satellites, rivaling the logistics of a major sporting event broadcast.
“I have been told that large opera houses do not take chances,” added Niels Windfeld Lund from The World Opera. “I am also told that nothing really great could happen as far north as Tromsø, Norway. Our partnership with the MET disproves these claims, and I am excited to be a part of this adventurous project."
Each of the high-definition transmissions are also being broadcast live over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network and in the U.S. on “Metropolitan Opera Radio on Sirius,” the Met’s new 24-hour satellite radio channel broadcasting live and rare historical performances. The Met’s radio audience totals more than 2.5 million listeners in North America, and millions more abroad.
Following a thirty-day period, a recorded version of these performances will be presented on television in the U.S. by Thirteen/WNET New York’s Great Performances on PBS beginning in January 2007.
About the Met’s cinema partners
National CineMedia, LLC is a venture of AMC Entertainment Inc., Cinemark USA, Inc. and Regal Entertainment Group (NYSE: RGC), three of the world's leading theatrical exhibition companies. The company develops pre-feature entertainment; cinema and lobby advertising products; comprehensive meeting and event services; and alternative forms of entertainment content for distribution across the approximately 13,000 screens operated by its owner theater circuits and other theater affiliates. Over 11,000 of these screens are part of NCM’s Digital Content Network (DCN), one of the world's largest in-theater digital distribution networks. The network provides content and advertising to 150 U.S. markets, including 49 of the top 50, reaching an estimated 525 million movie patrons annually. For additional information, please go to www.ncm.com or www.BigScreenConcerts.com.
Cineplex Entertainment LP owns, leases, or has a joint venture interest in 132 theaters with 1,309 screens and is the largest motion picture exhibitor in Canada. Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, the Partnership operates theaters with the following six top-tier brands: Cineplex Odeon, Galaxy and Famous Players (including Coliseum, Colossus and SilverCity). Proudly Canadian, the units of Cineplex Galaxy Income Fund, which owns approximately 59.7% of Cineplex Entertainment LP, are traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange under Cineplex Galaxy Income Fund (symbol CGX.UN). More information can be found at www.cineplex.com.
City Screen is the UK's leading independent exhibitor and fourth largest operator with a network of 18 'Picturehouse'-branded cinemas in major university cities across the country. With a strong presence in London, and a further 20 cinemas under contract for programming services and marketing support, City Screen leads the arthouse cinema market. City Screen strongly believes in digital technology as a means to modernise and diversify programming. In October 2006 the company became the first exhibitor in Europe to deploy a live HD satellite network across its entire circuit, and has already successfully undertaken live event and other alternative digital programming across the chain. Visit www.picturehouses.co.uk for more details.
Founded in 1895 and starting off with Kabuki theaters, Shochiku now has established itself as a leading motion picture/theater producer, distributor, and exhibitor. Shochiku have produced Yasujiro Ozu, Hiroshi Shimizu, Keisuke Kinoshita, Kenji Mizoguchi, Akira Kurosawa, Nagisa Ohshima, Takeshi Kitano, and keeps on introducing many talented directors inside and outside of Japan. Recent productions include "The Twilight Samurai" by Yoji Yamada, which was presented in competition at the 53rd Berlin International Film Festival and was also nominated for the 76th Academy Award as Best Foreign Language Film. Shochiku also acts in the Japanese film industry as an active independent distributor, and as for the exhibition side, Shochiku holds five theater lines, encompassing all of Japan. It holds its own video label and distribution system, and is involved in TV production. In 2003, Shochiku focuses on Yasujiro Ozu's 100th anniversary of his birth, having special screenings and retrospectives around the world.
The World Opera, anchored in Tromsø, Norway, being the Northernmost Opera house in the world—300 miles above the Arctic Circle, is planned to be a full scale opera house with a special explorative approach, thus being a space where traditions for how to do things within opera as a whole will be challenged through own opera productions and distribution of other opera productions in cooperation with other opera houses around the world, all in order to keep the question open about how to make an opera in the best way, as a fruitful challenge for realizing it in 3 different ways all using modern technology: on site physical workshops in different places around the world; virtual workshops with people placed in different places yet connected to each other working on joint opera productions; and full performances on site in Tromsø and other places in the world as well as creating a virtual worldwide opera house.
Nordisk Film is the leading producer and distributor of electronic entertainment in the Nordic region and employs 1200 people in the four countries. Nordisk Film incorporates all parts of the value chain of the electronic entertainment world: development, production, marketing and distribution. On the threshold of our 100th anniversary, Nordisk Film is well on its way to becoming the creative powerhouse of the Nordic region. Our chain of cinemas is highly profiled, strategically located to cover all major cities in Denmark, and has state-of-the-art equipment throughout. Nordisk Film Cinemas consist of sixteen modern cinemas in Denmark - and one in Norway - with a total of 110 screens and more than 16.716 seats. Approximately every second cinema ticket in Denmark is sold by Nordisk Film Cinemas. Nordisk Film is part of Egmont, one of Scandinavia’s leading media groups.
Emerging Pictures is a filmed entertainment company for the digital age. Representing the fusion of independent film methodology and the latest digital technology, Emerging Pictures will be a major supplier of original content to traditional media outlets and a pioneer in aggregating content for future delivery systems, including its own network of digital theaters that are being created inside of existing arts institutions—Emerging Cinemas. The use of digital technologies creates cost efficiencies in distribution and exhibition that will enable Emerging Cinema outlets to present specialized content such as international film festival presentations, first run independent/international films, high definition productions of concerts, operas, live theater, documentaries, as well as children's programming and other educational programs.
About the Met
Under the leadership of new General Manager Peter Gelb, the Met has launched many initiatives to connect the company with a larger audience. They include: a first-ever free Open House that offered the public an opportunity to attend the final dress rehearsal of Madama Butterfly; an extensive Madama Butterfly transit advertising campaign in New York City during the month of September; $15 tickets (formerly $26) in the Family Circle section; the new Agnes Varis and Karl Leichtman Rush Ticket program that offers 200 orchestra seats deeply discounted to $20 for weekday performances, available at the box office two hours before curtain; the new Arnold and Marie Schwartz Gallery Met exhibiting contemporary art; a groundbreaking commissioning program in partnership with the Lincoln Center Theater that provides renowned composers and playwrights the resources to create and develop new works at the Met and Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theater; and dynamic new content on the web site, the house program, and the Saturday matinee radio broadcasts heard over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network.
The Met recently announced the use of advanced distribution platforms and state-of-the-art technology to attract new audiences and reach millions of opera fans around the world. On September 25, “Metropolitan Opera Radio on Sirius” launched as a 24-hour satellite radio channel broadcasting live and rare historical performances. The Met presents free live streaming of performances from its website once every week with support from RealNetworks®.