Last week in Fargo, N.D., moviegoers had a choice among Aliens vs. Predator, The Great Debaters or Macbeth, live from New York’s Metropolitan Opera.
Murder, mayhem, romance: The plot elements of Verdi’s opera were packing ‘em into about 600 theatres across North America, Europe, Japan and Australia.
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 said. “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—Gelb chose a poster of sexy soprano Anna Netrebko as Juliet. “I knew that it would attract teenage boys,” he said with a grin.
Last Saturday, as Verdi’s Macbeth was beamed to theatres 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.
“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 theatres in New York, where tickets for the actual performance were still available, although at higher prices. Movie tickets cost US$22, compared to $27 to $295 for the Saturday afternoon performances at the Met.
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% 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% so far, and have proved to be popular among schoolchildren in New York and elsewhere.
