Most-watched Mozart opera of all time?
mainThe Met has just posted audience figures for Don Giovanni. It earned $2.3 million at the US/Canada box-office and has been watched, so far, by 265,000 people worldwide.
Despite poor reviews, the show will become legend for quarter of a million people. Renee Fleming may well become more famous as an intermission presenter than as an opera singer. The times they are a-changing.
Press release:
HD BOX OFFICE REPORT:
Don Giovanni takes in
$2.3 million in North America
Missed it live? Special encore screening in the U.S.
on November 16 at 6:30 p.m. local time
Click for photos and video from Don Giovanni
Password: opera11met
New York, NY (October 31, 2011) – The Met: Live in HD continued its sixth season Saturday with a live transmission of its new production of Don Giovanni, starring Mariusz Kwiecien, with an estimated attendance of 107,000 in North America earning a gross of $2.3 million. It was seen live on more than 850 screens. An estimated additional 109,000 people saw it live on 625screens in 42 additional countries; 28 in Europe, nine in Latin America, and Russia, Egypt, Israel, Morocco, and the Bahamas.
Delayed showings in Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, and encore performances in North America and Europe, are expected to boost worldwide attendance of Don Giovanni to 265,000. The encore screening of Don Giovanni in the U.S. is on November 16; the Canadian encores are December 17 and January 9.
The new production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, by Tony Award winner Michael Grandage, was conducted by Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi in his Live in HD debut. In a dramatic offstage twist, star Kwiecien was injured in the final dress rehearsal of the production on October 10 but underwent back surgery and a rigorous physical therapy regimen so that he would be able to return to the Met stage in time for this performance. The other stars of Don Giovanni included Mojca Erdmann as Zerlina, Barbara Frittoli as Donna Elvira, Marina Rebeka as Donna Anna, Ramón Vargas as Don Ottavio, Luca Pisaroni as Leporello, Joshua Bloom as Masetto, and Štefan Kocán as the Commendatore.
The live transmission, hosted by soprano Renée Fleming, was directed by Barbara Willis Sweete.
The Met: Live in HD, the Met’s award-winning series of live transmissions to movie theaters around the world, has expanded its worldwide distribution to more than 1,600 theaters in 54 countries, the largest global audience the initiative has ever reached. In addition to Russia, Italy and Israel, new countries joining the Live in HD network this season include China, Cyprus, Dominican Republic, Morocco, Slovenia, and the territory of St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Don Giovanni was the second of 11 live transmissions to be shown this season. The next transmission will be the new production of Wagner’s Siegfried on November 5, the third installment of Robert Lepage’s new Ring Cycle at the Met.
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Contact:
Lee Abrahamian
Metropolitan Opera
(212) 870-7457
That averages out to 120 audience members per screen.
The most-watched Mozart on television in the US is probably “The Magic Flute” — between occasional screenings of the Bergman film, the recent MetOpera adaptation, and an NBC Opera version on TV in the 1950s or ’60s, that’s likely the Mozart opera most exposed to Americans over the last half-century.