“The first transmission, on Saturday, December 15 — Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, starring Anna Netrebko and Roberto Alagna, conducted by Plácido Domingo — drew a worldwide audience of 97,000. 435 venues (477 screens) in the United States and Canada sold approximately 77,000 tickets; 100 international venues (100 screens) sold an additional 20,000 tickets.”
Tag: 12.17.07
London’s Royal Opera House Goes Techy
The company’s got a site of Facebook and offers podcasts. “This week, the ROH will announce that after 18 months of negotiations, it has struck a deal with the Musician’s Union that allows it to record 14 productions a year for commercial exploitation, 12 of which can be shown in cinemas.”
Hard Times For Books
“The delivery of the content of a book in different forms and formats is making people nervous,” he said, not quite uttering the name ‘Kindle.’ So we’re trying to publish in a lot of different formats because we don’t know where the readers are going to be. A lot of us in the publishing industry started out when we still used carbon paper and manual typewriters.”
Disney Hong Kong Attendance Plunges
“Visitors dropped to just over 4 million in the year to September, down from 5 million in its 2005-06 first year. Figures revealed in papers prepared for Legco, Hong Kong’s parliament, mean that the park has missed its target in both years of operation.”
Writers Guild Rejects Writers Waiver For Oscars, Globes
“The board of directors of the Writers Guild of America West rejected the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ request for an interim agreement for writing services.”
Istanbul’s New 500-Seat Opera House
The Sureyya Opera House, which opened Friday and becomes the sixth opera house in the city, will host performances three nights a week by the Istanbul Opera and Ballet.
Early-1900s Caruso, Melba Recordings On Display
“The Paris Opera and National Library are putting on display two sealed urns containing recordings by opera greats of the early 1900s such as Nellie Melba and Enrico Caruso. The recordings were buried on Dec. 24, 1907, in an effort to preserve the leading voices of the era.”
How A Fake Gauguin Got Into Chicago’s Art Institute
“Had ‘The Faun’ been a print or drawing, there would have been more comparisons with known Gauguins. In sculpture, Gauguin research is slim, and the small number of available ceramics — about 50 are extant — compromises scientific analysis.”
Three National Ballet Of Cuba Dancers Defect
“The dancers — Taras Domitro, Hayna Gutierrez and Miguel Angel Blanco — defected after a double joint presentation of the Nutcracker Suite by The National Ballet of Cuba and the Canadian Ballet Youth Ensemble.”
Critics Question Mission Of Civil Rights Museum
The museum is on the site of Martin Luther King’s assassination. “Critics say that the board that runs the National Civil Rights Museum and its corporate members have too much power, and some community members feel shut out.”