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San Francisco Opera: Madama Butterfly

San Francisco Opera engaged MobileCast Media to increase subscription growth, ticket sales, and to reach out to younger demographics. This video podcast was released in high definition for AppleTV, in standard definition for the iPod and iPhone, and on landing pages at sfopera.com as an online video. Although it was not envisioned when we started, the footage we shot for the interviews had multiple uses and we were glad that we shot and produced with the best production standards and in high definition.

Additional Videos from the 2007 - 2008 season:

- Samson and Delilah
- A Conversation With Graham Vick
- Tannhauser
- Appomattox
- The Magic Flute
- La Rondine
- Macbeth
- The Rake's Progress

Two of the HD video podcasts were broadcast via satellite to an audience of over 15,000 at AT&T park on the 3,200 square foot high definition LCD Jumbotron. Segments were later used in a number of nationwide cinemacasts which showed in 120 theaters across the country. Audio segments were also taken from the project footage and broadcast to 215 radio stations across the US and there are many more uses to come.

"John Houghton of MobileCast Media did a great job with our productions, making us successful in audio and video podcasting and online video. We were impressed by their high standards and follow through. These projects have been outstanding in increasing revenue and connecting San Francisco Opera to new audiences."

Susan McConkey
Chief Information Officer
San Francisco Opera

Transcript

Narrator (John Houghton): San Francisco Opera presents Puccini's Madama Butterfly starring Patricia Racette and Marie Plette as Cio-Cio-San, Brandon Jovanovich and James Valenti as B.F. Pinkerton, Zheng Cao as Suzuki, and Stephen Powell as Sharpless.

Patricia Racette (Cio-Cio-San): Madama butterfly is the story of a young geisha girl that meets and marries lieutenant Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton. They fall in love...

Zheng Cao (Suzuki): ...three years later he comes back with a wife who wants the child. She cannot live without honor so she kills herself.

Patricia Racette (Cio-Cio-San): After the wedding ceremony takes place, there is a toast in which Cio-Cio-San to toast one another in the traditional Japanese style and she coaxes him into the proper etiquette.

For me, the thing that really excites me about opera is the theater of it. There's nothing like it, there is absolutely nothing like it. You have the discipline of virtuosic music, vocal music, orchestral music and that's combined with set design, costume design, lighting design. And it's truly, I think, the most fantastic art form. It encompasses so many crafts and disciplines. And it's so rich and it's exciting to be part of an evening that presents that kind of spectacle.

Un bel di is the long awaited moment in Madama Butterfly. It's the moment where Cio-Cio-San shows her never ending hope of Pinkerton's return and sways and convinces Suzuki that this will in deed happen.

I love live performance. That is what I love about opera. It's live performance. It's not recreating perfection because it's irrelevant, it doesn't exist in live performance. The energy from the audience is different every performance. The energy from your colleagues it's different. The energy of the evening has it's own part to play in the outcome of a performance. Really, it's an incredible ride. And to be an audience member and watch an opera, be part of it and hopefully we as the performers have done that have included the audience so that they do feel part of it. It's a very exciting evening.

Zheng Cao (Suzuki): After they discover the American ship has come in, they were so overjoyed. They prepared the cherry blossom everywhere in the house to welcome their return and that's the famous flower duet.

Patricia Racette (Cio-Cio-San): I think opera is a cathartic experience. People can experience and express their pains and their joys through watching an experience on stage. And I've seen it happen so many times, someone would come back to me in the dressing room and it would be a very sad ending for example. And they would just be weeping, weeping. And I knew it was a bit about the story and hopefully a bit about my portrayal but mostly I could tell it was something cathartic that touched them. That's all art ever endeavors to do in my opinion is have an effect, to have some effect and touch the people, touch the souls of those who experience it, and that is a great privilege.

Made with the generous support of San Francisco Opera.

Produced and directed by John Houghton of MobileCast Media, Inc.