Met draws big crowds to opera house movie screens

‘Romeo and Juliet’ was No. 11 in North American movie box-office receipts recently.

By VERENA DOBNIK

ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

NEW YORK — Last week in Fargo, N.D., moviegoers had a choice among “Aliens vs. Predator,” “The Great Debaters” — and “Macbeth,” live from New York’s Metropolitan Opera.

Murder, mayhem, romance — the plot elements of Verdi’s opera were packing ’em in in North Dakota and about 600 theaters across North America, Europe, Japan and Australia — including Tinseltown in Boardman, Ohio.

It’s all part of a marketing strategy by Met general manager Peter Gelb to attract a new, younger audience.

“We’re creating, basically, satellite opera houses,” Gelb told The Associated Press. “But the Met offers something you don’t get at a performance — cameras that show action behind the scenes and interviews in dressing rooms, the equivalent of going into the locker room of a sports team.”

On a recent weekend, ticket sales for the Met broadcasts reached $1.65 million, pushing Charles Gounod’s “Romeo and Juliet” to No. 11 in North American movie box-office receipts, according to Variety.

To promote the broadcasts — and the live performances as well — Gelb chose a poster of a sexy soprano Anna Netrebko as Juliet.

“I knew that it would attract teenage boys,” he said with a grin.

After more than a year of boffo reviews for the high-definition satellite simulcasts, other companies are getting in on the act, including the San Francisco Opera, Milan’s La Scala and London’s Royal Opera.

Last Saturday, as Verdi’s “Macbeth” was beamed to theaters around the globe, Gelb sat in a satellite truck behind the opera house at Lincoln Center, editing on the fly as 13 cameras captured the drama on stage.

Some of the cameras rolled on a track just inches above the foot of the stage, low-angle shots.

“That’s never been done, because nobody believed there would be a market for it,” Gelb said.

Hundreds of venues around the world were sold out for “Macbeth,” even three theaters in New York, where tickets for the actual performance were still available, although at higher prices. Movie tickets cost $22, compared to $27 to $295 for the Saturday afternoon performances at the Met.

Moviegoers say they like the immediacy of the experience — the drama unfolds on 40-foot screens — as well as the informality.

“You’re a lot closer here than at the actual performance — you’re practically onstage,” said Craig Chesler, a 39-year-old rock guitarist watching “Macbeth” at a theater in Manhattan.

Opera lovers — and wannabe lovers — can find out where the broadcasts are playing by going to the Met Web site and clicking on the link for the HD series. The next of this season’s eight shows, on Feb. 16, is Puccini’s “Manon Lescaut.”

The cost of each transmission, including satellite feeds, equipment and crew, is about $1 million — in addition to up to $3 million for each new Met production, Gelb said. The Met expects to break even with the HD series by the end of this year, including revenues from repeat, taped transmissions and DVD sales.

Gelb, a former TV producer and Sony recording executive, began the simulcasts in December 2006, four months after taking over America’s premier opera house.

When he took on his new job, no more than about 75 percent of tickets for actual shows were selling, largely because of an aging audience.

To attract new enthusiasts, Gelb started a public relations blitz that included the live simulcasts; Internet and radio broadcasts; iPod downloads; splashy ads on city subway cars and buses; and a free screening on Met opening night in Times Square and at Lincoln Center, as well as regular telecasts to city public schools.

His plan to expand his potential audience seems to be working: About 100,000 people saw “Romeo and Juliet” on Dec. 15, but only 3,800 of them were in the opera house.

This season, Met ticket sales have topped 90 percent so far and have proved to be popular among schoolchildren in New York and elsewhere.

“I really thought they did an amazing job — I felt like I was there,” said 11-year-old Jesse Burgum after a friend invited her to see her first opera at the Century Theatre in Fargo. “I want to get the soundtrack now.”

More than half the 244 seats for “Macbeth” were filled at the Century, a sharp increase from the 40 or so people who saw the first Met production the theater offered, “Romeo and Juliet,” said theater manager Rick Solarski.

“Word-of-mouth is building the audience,” he said.

Gelb said the presence of cameras also is exciting for the performers, who never know when a camera might zoom in on them for a close-up.

“There’s a certain adrenaline level that goes up and it also gives a chance for members of the company to kind of step out,” Gelb said.

Other opera houses are taking note.

The San Francisco Opera is preparing to offer six shows to about 200 theaters, beginning in March. The shows will be taped during a performance for later transmission.

La Scala, in partnership with other Italian houses, is already showing seven taped productions per season in 30 U.S. theaters, while the Royal Opera in London is considering its own program. The Washington National Opera transmits simulcasts to a dozen college campuses and a few high schools.

Stephane Lissner, La Scala’s general manager, said his company’s transmissions to U.S. theaters are aimed at the American viewer who wouldn’t travel to Europe for opera.

“This is a message of the existence and the importance of world culture,” he said.

Gelb couldn’t agree more.

“The Met is where the action is now, reaching the global movie audience,” he said.