Yesterday’s live high-definition transmission of The Magic Flute was an international success. From California to the Arctic Circle, the response has been tremendous.

Hal Uplinger is a producer of LiveAid, so he knows about sending live shows to huge international audiences. “A smash - it was just fantastic,” he said after seeing the presentation in Irvine, California. “It looked great. I hope this is the beginning of something really, really big. What a great way to end the year!”

Patricia C. Pierose, of Boise, Idaho, agreed. “Yesterday I saw Taymor’s production of The Magic Flute in a packed house at 11:30 in the morning in my Levi’s,” she reports. “It was such great fun. If I come to New York once a year, I can not possibly see all that I want to. I grew up listening to the Texaco sponsored Metropolitan Opera on the radio. Saturday’s performance was thrilling and gorgeous, even if abbreviated. We clapped along with the rest of the New York audience.”

Meanwhile, in Tromso, Norway (see a photo of the town below), three audience members wrote in, “What a performance. It was amazing to watch The Magic Flute live from the Met here in Tromso, Norway. We are really looking forward to next Saturday’s performance.”

That will be Bellini’s I Puritani, starring Anna Netrebko, followed the following Saturday by the world-premiere production of Tan Dun’s The First Emperor, starring Placido Domingo. Three more live HD transmissions later in the season!

Tromso, Norway

Theaters across Canada were sold out for today’s HD transmission. And audiences up north got their money’s worth. “I will go see opera more often because of this presentation,” said one Toronto resident. An audience member in Windsor, Ontario, said, “The production itself, and the filming and the quality of sound was amazing.”

Next Saturday the Met will present a live transmission of Bellini’s I Puritani, starring Anna Netrebko. Anticipating that broadcast, a man in Toronto said, “We loved it, and we’re going downstairs to buy tickets for next Saturday!”

Here’s a shot of the Queensway theater marquee — another sold-out venue.

Kudos are starting to pour in about the Met’s first live HD transmission. In Nashville, Tennessee, the response to The Magic Flute was tremendous. “I was thrilled!” said Bebe Harton, a Nashville audience member. “It’s been a lifelong goal of mine to see an opera at the Met.”

Eight-year-old Meagan Capicik agreed with the assessment. “I loved it! I want to see it again.” Meagan’s father, Paul, said, “You forget you’re in a movie theater, especially when everyone around you is clapping — until you get that whiff of popcorn. They pulled everything seamlessly together.”

“It was so thrilling!” enthused Dorothy Robinson. “To think that people all over the world are watching and seeing Julie Taymor’s work — it’s so spectacular!”