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The Met’s inaugural 2006-07 season of six live HD programs proved to be a critical and popular hit, reaching 325,000 audience members around the world who attended performances relayed into movie theaters in North America, Europe, and Japan.
In its new deal with EMI, the Met retains the digital distribution rights for these five programs, as well as the DVD rights and digital distribution rights to the other programs which it has produced.
The Met’s five-title deal with EMI includes the following opera performances scheduled for the 2007-08 season: Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel (January 1), starring Christine Schäfer and Alice Coote in a new English-language production by Richard Jones and conducted by Vladimir Jurowski; Verdi’s Macbeth (January 12) starring Lado Ataneli in a new production directed by Adrian Noble; Puccini’s Manon Lescaut (February 16), starring Karita Mattila and Marcello Giordani; Britten’s Peter Grimes (March 15), starring Anthony Dean Griffey and Patricia Racette in a new production directed by John Doyle and conducted by Donald Runnicles; and Puccini’s La Bohème (April 5), starring Angela Gheorghiu and Ramón Vargas and conducted by Nicola Luisotti. Met Music Director James Levine conducts Macbeth and Manon Lescaut.
In addition to the opera performances, the releases will feature bonus material that includes some of the popular intermission features the Met produces for the live HD transmissions. The Met and EMI plan to discuss the possibility of other projects for release, both as DVDs and as audio records, culled from the historic Met archives as well as from the 2006-07 HD season.
“With the expansion of our network of movie theaters around the world, we anticipate an audience of one million attendees in movie theaters next season for our HD transmissions,” said Peter Gelb, the Met’s General Manager. “In the grand opera version of a movie roll-out, we plan on subsequent releases in many other formats, including DVD, which is why we are very pleased with our new arrangements with EMI.”
“We are delighted to be a partner of the great Metropolitan Opera and the innovative media strategy which Peter Gelb has introduced,” said Costa Pilavachi, President of EMI Classics. “This is a natural partnership as so many of our top stars are regular guests at the Met and we look forward to making these wonderful DVDs available to people in every corner of the globe.”
As owner of the digital and electronic rights to the productions licensed to EMI, the Met plans to make this programming available through its consumer website and through various other video distribution services, as well as on PBS and foreign television broadcasting systems. The Met is also negotiating with similar companies for the release of its other HD titles on DVD.
The inaugural series of high-definition transmissions received enormous attention internationally and sold out in many movie theaters throughout North America, Europe, and Japan, including both live and encore presentations. The Los Angeles Times praised the series: “The Met’s experiment of merging film with live performances has created a new art form. This venture may be the most significant development in opera since the supertitle.” The Met is expanding the 2007-08 series from six to eight live opera transmissions, beginning on December 15, 2007. -- www.metoperafamily.org
Posted August 13th, 2007 by ruzik_tuzik
