This will be the first San Francisco Opera external broadcast (i.e., outside the opera house itself) of a performance to use the Koret Media Suite, the high-definition video production facility recently installed in War Memorial Opera House. At each performance since the company began its current summer season on June 2, the equipment has been used for OperaVision, which offers audience members seated in the balcony to get a clear view of the onstage action via a video feed to two large screens suspended from the auditorium's ceiling.
Tomorrow night's Don Giovanni starring Mariusz Kwiecien in David McVicar's production — will be the third free simulcast of a San Francisco Opera performance since David Gockley began his tenure as the company's general director in January 2006. The first, on opening night of the 2006 summer season (May 27), was of Puccini's Madama Butterfly starring Patricia Racette and drew about 8,000 people to San Francisco's Civic Center Plaza. The second , a simulcast of Verdi's Rigoletto on October 6, 2006, attracted approximately 14,000 viewers to Civic Center Plaza and Frost Amphitheatre at Stanford University.