‘The Met: Live in HD’ Expands Worldwide
In December of 2006, the Metropolitan Opera began to simulcast its performances to movie theaters. Live movies of The Magic Flute, I puritani, The First Emperor, Eugene Onegin, The Barber of Seville, and Il trittico were seen at approximately 100 cinemas in North America and a few in the United Kingdom, Japan, and Norway. The live movies were a tremendous hit everywhere they were broadcast. Now, in its fifth season, The Met: Live in HD will present a dozen operas at 1,500 participating cinemas throughout the world, including for the first time, Egypt, Portugal, and Spain.
Last season, according to Broadway World, there were nine simulcasts that resulted in the sale of 2.4 million tickets. That is three times the number sold at Lincoln Center. The amount of gross sales revenue for movie tickets was $48 million, half of which goes to the Met.
uk.broadwayworld.com/article/THE_MET_LIVE_IN_HD_Series_Expands_To_1500_Theaters_And_46_Countries_20100830
Varis Donates to Opera Orchestra of New York and the Met
Prominent arts patron and Metropolitan Opera board member Agnes Varis has donated $250,000 to the Opera Orchestra of New York, reports Crain’s New York Business. The money is to be used for the company’s presentation of the exotic Giacomo Meyerbeer opera L’africaine on March 2, 2011, in Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. The Opera Orchestra of New York, founded in 1967 by its conductor, Eve Queler, is making a comeback after several years of declining finances.
Earlier this month, Varis donated $2.5 million to the Metropolitan Opera Association to be used in subsidizing some 13,600 prime weekend tickets for the 2010-11 season. With her help, tickets normally priced at $135 to $322 can be sold for $25.
www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20100831/FREE/100839959
A Million Dollars Will Make a Big Difference at Opera Tampa
Dr. Zena Lansky has given $1 million to Opera Tampa, reports the St. Petersburg Times. The donation was announced at a reception at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts where Opera Tampa presents its season. It is the largest gift ever received by the company since its beginning in 1996. The money will be used to hire leading artists for forthcoming productions.
Bill F. Faucett, director of endowment and planned giving for the center, stated that the gift was a fundraiser’s dream. Dr. Lansky’s interest in the company built up over a number of years of attending, of seeing the growth, and wanting it to continue. “I wanted to give back to the community and to the arts,” Lansky said, “and in my mind, opera is the highest art form.”
www.tampabay.com/features/performingarts/opera-tampa-receives-1-million-gift/1116310
Opera Is Not as New to the U.S. as We Think
Who would have thought that 100 years ago there were full weeks of opera, not only in New York but also in the Old West? In February of 1899, the Jules Grau Opera Company went first to Portland, Oregon, and then to Boise, Idaho for six nights and two matinees featuring what were then popular operas and operettas, writes historian Arthur Hart in the Idaho Statesman. Grau was the brother of Maurice Grau who headed the Metropolitan Opera at that time. Administrators, singers, instrumentalists, and technicians of the Grau touring company traveled around the country by rail with scenery for 27 operas. Most of the time they spent a week in each city.
www.idahostatesman.com/2010/09/05/1328431/sophisticated-boiseans-loved-a.html
Naxos Sees Continued Life for CDs
Naxos Recordings founder Klaus Heymann reports that sales of classical CDs are not declining the way that they are in the pop and rock sectors, according to the U.K. publication the Guardian. He says that the sales of CDs for 2010 are approximately the same as they were for 2009 and that the growth of classical downloads had slowed down dramatically. There is a slight increase in download sales, but it is not at the same rate as it was a few years ago. Heymann doubts that downloads will account for much more than 20 percent of classical music sales worldwide. He thinks that the future of listening will be an “all-you-can-eat formula” where people pay a flat rate by the month or the year and then listen to all the music they desire.
www.gramophone.co.uk/features/focus/the-future-of-listening-will-be-an-all-you-eat-formula
