Otello takes in US$2.2m - 'The Met: Live in HD' series continues this weekend

The Met: Live in HD continued its seventh season recently with a live transmission of Guiseppe Verdi's Otello, starring Renée Fleming as Desdemona, with an estimated attendance of 95,000 in North America, bringing gross earnings of US$2.2 million.

The opera was seen live on more than 900 screens. An estimated additional 96,000 people saw it live on 850 screens in 30 countries in Europe, Russia, The Bahamas, Bermuda, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Israel, Jamaica, Morocco, and 11 countries in Latin America. The series is now seen in 64 countries.

Delayed showings throughout Asia, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, and encore performances in North America and Europe, are expected to boost worldwide attendance of Otello to 260,000. Encore screenings of Otello are to be held on November 14 in the United States and on November 24 and December 3 across Canada.

In addition to Renée Fleming, Otello starred South African tenor Johan Botha in the title role, with German bass-baritone Falk Struckmann as Iago. The performance was conducted by Maestro Semyon Bychkov.

The live transmission, hosted by soprano Sondra Radvanovsky, was directed for cinema by Barbara Willis Sweete.

The Met: Live in HD, the Met's award-winning series of live transmissions to movie theatres around the world, has expanded its worldwide distribution to 1,900 theatres in 64 countries, the largest global audience the initiative has ever reached.

New countries joining the Live in HD network this season include Ecuador, Guatemala, Jamaica, India, Madagascar, Montenegro, Qatar and Serbia.

Otello was the second of 12 live transmissions to be shown this season. The next transmission will be the Met's premiere production of Thomas Adès's The Tempest on November 10, with Adès conducting his own work.

Simon Keenlyside stars as Prospero, in the inventive new staging by director Robert ssssww.