SF Opera plans to put shows in theaters

The San Francisco Opera plans to make films of its performances available for showings in movie theaters starting in March.

The opera says it will put six operas into worldwide theater distribution each year over the next four years. Earlier this year it began offering live simulcasts of its productions at San Francisco’s AT&T Park and other outdoor venues.

The productions it plans to release in 2008 include five from the fall season and one from the summer season: Puccini’s “La Rondine” and “Madama Butterfly,” Saint-Saens’ “Samson and Delilah,” Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” and “Don Giovanni,” and “Appomattox.”

Its agreement with The Bigger Picture, a distributor of digital movies, will make it the first opera company to capture and screen its work with the same picture and sound technology used in Hollywood feature films.

The deal calls for the productions to be recorded in a surround-sound format and to be shown with the latest digital projectors.