‘Magic Flute’ simulcast does big business

updated 7:22 p.m. ET Jan. 5, 2007

NEW YORK - The Metropolitan Opera’s first high-definition simulcast to movie theaters drew 91 capacity in the United States last weekend.

The company said Friday that final figures showed 60 venues carried a live transmission of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute,” and that total U.S. capacity was about 14,500.

Tickets sold out for all seven theaters in Britain last Saturday and 75 percent of tickets were sold in the 28 theaters that carried the transmission in Canada. In all, the company said about 30,000 people saw the simulcast, including delayed transmissions to Japan.

The series continues Saturday with Bellini’s “I Puritani” and will be followed by Tan Dun’s “The First Emperor” (Jan. 13), Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin” (Feb. 24), Rossini’s “Il Barbiere di Siviglia” (March 24) and Puccini’s “Il Trittico” (April 28).

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