The War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco is coming to Santa Clarita.  On September 28, 2010, and January 25, 2011, the Santa Clarita Performing Arts Center will present HD screenings of the Company’s acclaimed production of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly and Mozart’s Don Giovanni.  Recorded live at the War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco Opera’s cinema presentations will be presented for the first time in Southern California through that medium.

All shows include English subtitles and a brief intermission featuring behind the scenes interviews.  All performances feature the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and San Francisco Opera Chorus (Ian Robertson, Chorus Director).

On September 28, Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly will entertain audiences with its story of colliding hearts and cultures while featuring some of opera’s most beautiful and captivating music.  Sung in Italian with English subtitles, the opera is two hours and 40 minutes and is rated appropriate for general audiences.

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Madama Butterfly stars celebrated American soprano Patricia Racette in her signature role as the tragic heroine Cio-Cio-San.   Rising American tenor Brandon Jovanovich plays Lieutenant B.F. Pinkerton and mezzo-soprano Zheng Cao plays Suzuki.  Former San Francisco Opera Music Director Donald Runnicles conducts this stirring San Francisco Opera production created by Ron Daniels and directed by Kathleen Belcher.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Don Giovanni will be played on January 25, 2011.  The Don Juan legend crackles to life in the hands of one of the world’s most beloved composers.  Sung in Italian with English subtitles, the opera is three hours long and is rated appropriate for general audiences.

Cannily balancing comedy and tragedy, Leah Hausman directs this riveting San Francisco Opera/Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie co-production by David McVicar and conducted by Donald Runnicles.  The cast features leading baritone Mariusz Kwiecien in the title role, soprano Elza van den Heever as Donna Anna, soprano Twyla Robinson as Donna Elvira, tenor Charles Castronovo as Don Ottavio and bass Oren Gradus as Leporello.

San Francisco Opera launched its digital cinema series in Spring 2008 with its presentation of La Rondine, Samson and Delilah, Don Giovanni and Madama Butterfly to movie theaters across the country.  These operas are now available to theaters and performing arts venues as part of the Company’s Grand Opera Cinema Series, which focuses on distributing San Francisco Opera cinema presentations to arts centers, independent film theaters, universities, and other venues in the western region of the country.

The cinema series is one of the many electronic media initiatives launched under the direction of General Director David Gockley.  Since 2006, the Company has presented seven free live simulcasts at venues throughout the Bay Area, including San Francisco’s AT&T Park.

San Francisco Opera’s simulcasts and cinemacasts are made possible through the technology of the Company’s Koret-Taube Media Suite, the first permanent HD broadcast-standard video production facility installed in an American opera house.  The media suite gives the Company the permanent capability to generate a high-definition, multi-camera live feed of the stage for many uses including cinema presentations, its expanding tradition of free outdoor simulcasts, OperaVision (offering full stage video on two screens for patrons seated in the balcony section of the War Memorial Opera House), and for educational and other uses.

A grant from the Koret Foundation provided lead funding for the Koret-Taube Media Suite, with additional support provided by Tad and Dianne Taube.  An anonymous donor committed the remaining required funding.

Tickets for San Francisco Opera’s Grand Opera Cinema Series at the Santa Clarita Performing Arts Center are priced at $10 / $5.  For more information or to purchase tickets, click here, call (661) 362-5304 or email boxoffice@canyons.edu.

For more information about San Francisco Opera’s Grand Opera Cinema Series, including additional theaters currently screening the series, and further information and video clips of Madama Butterfly, Don Giovanni, Samson and Delilah and La Rondine, click here.

This is here for my reference to create links:

http://canyons.edu/Offices/PIO/CanyonsPAC/

visit sfopera.com/cinemaseries.