Cinema comes to the rescue of the “cousin” arts. Painting, sculpture, opera and theatre, cornered by one of the most spectacular inventions of the twentieth century, are now taking their revenge. Not only that: the most recent and sophisticated technological inventions are the handmaids of ballet and musicals. It's the new trend in the diverse world of entertainment: the big art institutions have realized that if they want to continue to be popular and, above all, profitable, they must use new technologies, those able to reach a greater number of audiences, the youngest in primis.
The most recent example is that of the National Gallery in London which, thanks to the great success achieved by show-event "Leonardo da Vinci. Painter at the Court of Milan (from November 9 to February 5, sold out with more than 300 thousand visitors) last February 16 distributed a documentary-introduction to the exhibition (signed by the English documentary filmmaker Phil Grabsky) in the cinemas of 15 countries around the world (500 cinemas in the United States alone). Based on footage shot at the November 8 opening of the exhibition itself, the film, featuring art experts and show business personalities commenting on the paintings on display, delighted a diverse cinema audience from the United States, Australia and New Zealand. This is the first live "guided tour" of an exhibition ever conveyed to the cinema, but the idea of the live event has already been used by other prestigious institutions in the music field.
It has been for some years now, for example, that the prestigious Metropolitan Opera of New York (Met) records the performances live and distributes them as films in cinemas all over the world just a few months after the show itself. It is a way to reach those abroad who love opera but cannot afford to go to New York and pay the cost of one of the relatively few tickets available. And it's a way for the Met to maximize costs and multiply your audience exponentially. And the audience has in fact grown enormously thanks to a very successful experiment: if in the 2006-7 season 320 tickets were sold in international cinemas, in the season which has just ended (2010-2011) 2,4 million tickets were sold in 1.200 cinemas in 43 countries around the world. The Met thus saw the paying audience triple: "only" 800 people in the season sat on the Met's seats to attend the shows on the bill. The opera house also saw profits increase: sales of movie tickets alone guaranteed a gross profit of $48 million, half of which went to the Met's coffers.
The success of the operation can be explained by the excellent quality of the show: international spectators, comfortably seated in their seats in the neighborhood cinema, can enjoy a show in high definition with the major international stars at a decidedly reduced price. The film includes intervals corresponding to the acts of the opera which allows the audience to sip a glass of wine and have a chat in the foyer. The screening also features interviews with the singers and the artists and technicians involved in the production, and offers the thrill of a behind-the-scenes look. In short, the illusion of the live experience is at its best.
The example of the Met is one of the most successful, but nowadays more and more theaters and museums are trying to get closer to the public by any means. Youtube videos promoting shows and exhibitions are now common, but the more daring organizations are also using applications for the iPhone and iPad. For example MusicTheathre International, which owns the rights to 300 titles in the musical genre (including the very popular "Annie", "West Side Story", "Les Miserables" and the brand new "Legally Blonde: The Musical"), provides a free app for iPhone and iPad, called “MTIshows” which allows you to have updated information on the shows, including synopses and biographies or interviews with the actors, as well as updates on dates and nearest places of the performances. In short, new technologies are becoming the perfect vehicle for art and culture.
