Hoyts to bring San Fran opera to cinemas

One of the most respected companies in the world, San Francisco Opera is the second largest opera company in North America. Led by General Director David Gockley and Music Director Donald Runnicles, the Company’s season features approximately seventy-five performances of ten operas between September and July each year.

For a strictly limited season, Hoyts Chadstone, Hoyts Broadway, Hoyts Belconnen, Hoyts Carousel and United Cinemas Warriewood will broadcast four select San Francisco Operas which were recorded live at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco. 

These performances include a 10-minute intermission and English subtitles:

LA RONDINE

Superstar soprano Angela Gheorghiu makes her long-awaited San Francisco Opera debut in this rare staging of Puccini’s elegant and poignant opera. “With her dark, liquid tone, she beautifully captures the lonely anguish” of her character, according to The Guardian of London.

SAMSON AND DELILAH

Saint- Saëns’s sweeping biblical epic stars mezzo-soprano Olga Borodina as Delilah and tenor Clifton Forbis as the Old Testament hero who loses his heart, his hair, and finally his strength.

DON GIOVANNI

The Don Juan legend crackles to life in Mozart’s masterpiece, with close escapes, amorous encounters and a death-defying date with the Devil. Starring in the title role, Mariusz Kwiecien exudes “vocal grandeur and elegant erotic menace.” (San Francisco Chronicle)

MADAMA BUTTERFLY

Starring soprano Patricia Racette in her signature role as the tragic heroine Cio-Cio-San. This classic story of colliding hearts and cultures, set in 19th-century Japan, features some of opera’s most beautiful and captivating music. “Mesmerizing…superb…one of the fall’s most transfixing performances, a compelling and almost breathlessly taut rendition of this timeless tragedy.” (San Francisco Chronicle).

Ticket prices for the San Francisco Opera season at Hoyts are $25 for adults, $21 for children and seniors and $23 for concession. High Tea packages are also available for an additional $20 per person (entitling patrons to a complimentary beverage and gourmet sandwiches).

In December 2007, San Francisco Opera and The Bigger Picture, a subsidiary of Access Integrated Technologies, Inc. announced a landmark new worldwide digital cinema agreement that puts San Francisco Opera performances into cinemas in the highest quality digital cinema format. 

The combination of the San Francisco Opera’s stunning performances, high-definition recording capabilities, and The Bigger Picture’s distribution of operas through its network of digital cinema-equipped cinema partners represents a new paradigm for in-theatre entertainment. 

It is an all digital 2K release with 5.1 surround sound, ensuring premium picture and sound quality, on theatre screens that conform with the highest digital cinema standards as set by the Digital Cinema Initiatives, LLC, a joint venture of the major movie studios created in March 2002 to develop specifications for the technology shift to digital cinema in theatres. 

[release from NIXCo]