UTAH OPERA'S "THE BARBER OF SEVILLE" — SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN
In 2021, Utah Opera staged a unique production of Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville” directed by Michael Shell. It took the traditional opera and placed it in modern (but pre-cellphone) era Spain, taking visual inspiration from Pedro Almodóvar’s films.
Naturally, the social media had to be equally as fun and engaging. I played up the story's silliness through videos and TikTok-style snippets, used fun production photography, and engaged with patrons through giveaways.
The following is a sampling of the content I produced, as well as a report on the performance of that content.
“The Barber of Seville” as a reality show
There’s more than one way to tell a story. Since the opera’s concept was so contemporary, I had the key performers come in and act as though they were doing a confessional-style reality show segment. I gave them some talking points and let them run with it. I then edited it to carry the story in a humorous way.
If Rossini had TikTok
Utah Symphony and Opera had recently started a TikTok account, so we looked for ways to do short-form storytelling with the platform. We found that the platform’s trending audio was a great way to tell the story of the opera's characters in a funny, accessible way.
Pre-performance Talks
This production of “The Barber of Seville” was originally due to open in March of 2020, the same weekend that most of the United States shut down for Covid-19. When Utah Opera restaged it for October 2021, many pandemic protocols were still in place, making it difficult for more vulnerable patrons to enjoy the extra experiences Utah Opera provides to their patrons.
For this reason, I filmed and edited a pre-concert talk with Head Vocal Coach Dr. Carol Anderson so Utah Opera’s patron base could enjoy it online.
Coordinating Content Creation
Not many people know that “The Barber of Seville” holds many of their favorite tunes from classical music — it’s one of the most recognizable operas! For many of Utah Opera’s productions, I coordinated with Blank Space Productions to create “music videos” of fun and recognizable parts of the opera.
I determined which parts needed to be filmed; communicated the cues and timings to our production company; sent supertitle copy for the final production; and communicated the artistic staff’s vision and production company’s constraints to the relevant parties.
