Category: Opera

Event Cinema Works

I’ve written many times about how theatrical exhibition has to move more toward special events in order to survive. Here is another example of Emerging Pictures’ efforts in this direction. This past weekend, we premiered Kenneth Branagh’s “The Magic Flute” in theaters across the country, and afterward did a live Q&A with Branagh himself, from his home in the U.K. Now you can watch the entire event below. By the way, the film is still playing around the country, so check out the Emerging Pictures web site for locations.

Comments after the break… Continue reading “Event Cinema Works”

Opera and Indie Film: More Alike Than We Think.

In the parlance of academia, my area of research is film–specifically independent film. I’ve devoted my entire working life to trying to make and distribute films for which there was no place within the major studio system. So it is as surprising to me as it is to all of you that I’ve become somewhat of an opera impresario by virtue of distributing live and recorded broadcasts of opera into movie theaters.

Opera has never been a part of my life. My exposure to it was mainly limited to the soundtracks of movies. The films of Scorsese and Coppola teem with the sounds of opera. The Marx Brothers film “A Night at the Opera” is one of my all-time favorites, and I still smile whenever I hear an aria that I first heard while Marxian mayhem was being performed on screen. In 1981, I distributed the movie “Diva,” and experienced real opera for the first time through a friendship with Wilhelmenia Fernandez, who invited me to see her perform at the New York City Opera. Continue reading “Opera and Indie Film: More Alike Than We Think.”

Opera lovers rejoice!

Emerging Pictures’ venue partners are finding ways to give their Opera-loving audience a way to appreciate the La Scala series even more. The Charles Theatre in Baltimore welcomes local opera aficionado Jonathan Palevsky, Program Director at WBJC a non-commercial, classical music and arts radio station, who will introduce the 7 p.m. AIDA screening at the Charles on Sunday evening, December 9. He stopped by and did a brief introduction at the December 6th 2 o’clock screening.

Check it out here