The San Diego Opera had a problem: They needed to boost slowing ticket sales after the COVID-19 pandemic, and market to a modern, multi-cultural audience, who may not think of themselves as opera goers.
Partnering with the creative minds at Esser Design (https://esserdesign.com/), freelance illustrator Raul Urias (https://rauluriasart.com/), and myself as motion designer, the team put together a series of highly creative series of visual candy for various shows at the San Diego Opera.
Our first show was “El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego” (The Last Dream of Frida and Diego), a Spanish language opera with English and Spanish subtitles. During the celebration of Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead), surrounded by candles and the fragrance of marigolds, the great muralist Diego Rivera longs to see his deceased wife Frida Kahlo once more. Catrina, the keeper of the souls, approaches Frida in the afterlife, and explains that Diego desperately needs his beloved wife as the end of his life approaches. For only 24 hours, Frida and Diego will relive their tumultuous love through their paintings and embrace the passion they shared.
The team at Esser Design coordinated production with the client. Once Raul Urias finished the poster illustrations, Esser Design worked with me to create storyboards, and I brought the illustrations to life in motion design.
We produced spots in both English and Spanish, with the goal of attracting more Spanish speaking guests to the opera. (That Duolingo streak coming in clutch.) The spots were planned to be bilingual from the start, since our strategic goal was a greater diversity of opera attendees.
Following the art direction established in Frida y Diego, we created several more campaigns for other shows, including The Puccini Duo, Don Giovanni, El Milagro, Tosca, and Madama Butterfly.
I also resized the animations for social media and web, giving the animations additional reach across many channels, including TV, YouTube, Hulu, social, and web banners. The ads performed well, driving many new audience members to the opera for the first time.
