UPDATE: Just thought that I would mention this article from San Francisco Chronicle about the upcoming Cinemacasts of four San Francisco Opera:
S.F. Opera on the silver screen
Joshua Kosman, Chronicle Music Critic
Wednesday, February 27, 2008The San Francisco Opera will join the world of opera on film next month with nationwide cinematic showings of four operas from the company’s 2007 offerings.
The screenings begin March 8-11 with Puccini’s “La Rondine,” starring soprano Angela Gheorghiu and tenor Misha Didyk. Subsequent showings are of Saint-Saëns’ “Samson and Delilah” (March 29-April 1), Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” (April 12-15) and Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly” (April 19-22), with each opera being shown four times.
Unlike the live monthly broadcasts by the Metropolitan Opera, the San Francisco Opera’s digital screenings – co-presented with the distribution company The Bigger Picture – are pre-recorded during performances in the War Memorial Opera House, and will be edited in the Koret-Taube Media Suite, the company’s high-tech production facility.
Unfortunately, it may be a while longer before hometown audiences get a taste. The 121 theaters currently scheduled to show the broadcasts range from South Portland, Maine, to Kennewick, Wash, and include screens in Birmingham, Ala., Apple Valley, Minn., and even New York City.
Notably lacking from the roster are any theaters in San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley or the South Bay. The only screenings currently scheduled in the Bay Area are in Livermore, Fairfax and Petaluma. Read the rest.
If I may insert my personal prediction and an opinion: prediction – this “experiment” will fail miserably – all four operas are pre-recorded and edited, so it will be like driving 50 miles (in my case) to watch a DVD; opinion – whoever is in charge of promotion and marketing should be fired immediately – many of the readers that came to our blog were looking for information and, I am proud to say, this post contained more information about the dates and weblinks than San Francisco Opera website itself! Who is in charge here? How hard is it to submit an ad to Opera News with dates and a link to a website with locations and tickets AND, at the same time, to update the website where the majority of the people would go for information?
ORIGINAL POST: I don’t think this has been advertised efficiently, but I have seen this in new Opera News (March 2008) and I would like to spread the word. Although the arrangement is rather strange, for example, I would have to drive for about 50 miles to the closest movie theater to see this – and that is, from a large city to a smaller town – I will have to look into this. But here is some info on San Francisco Opera schedule of cinemacasts (pre-recorded live performances): Continue reading
Perverse Egalitarianism 