The Royal Opera House announced a massive expansion of its live cinema programme today.
The scheme, which began with just 45 UK screens three years ago, will now involve 240 cinemas in Britain and more than 900 around the world in the new 2012-13 season.
Tenor Placido Domingo will be just one of a host of stars beamed into a record number of venues.
Chief executive Tony Hall said the Covent Garden-based ROH could even start to make money on the scheme — which until now has merely covered costs on turnover of £1 million because of the expense involved in filming opera and ballet for broadcast.
However, revenue was not the only objective, he insisted. “Giving as many people as we can access to the wonderful things happening here is profoundly important,” said Lord Hall.
“You may not be able to come here but you can be part of the Royal Opera House and see our things.”
Anecdotal evidence suggested cinema screenings also helped to encourage people to try opera or ballet for the first time — then attend for real.
The scheme was on course to make money, which would be ploughed into future shows, said Lord Hall, adding: “I hope it will go into surplus this year, but I don’t want to be held to that.”
There were initial doubts on whether people would watch productions at the cinema — but ROH audiences for operas and ballets doubled to about 300,000 in the last year. The ballet La Fille Mal Gardée was No 3 for UK cinema box office takings on its live release day in May and No 10 for the week.
This season, supported by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, presents nine operas including Domingo’s debut in Verdi’s Nabucco and British tenor Simon Keenlyside in Eugene Onegin.
Ballets include Swan Lake, featuring Zenaida Yanowsky, and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
The Opera House has 750,000 seats for sale a year. But cinema relays and broadcasts on TV and Radio 3 boost global audiences to about 7.5 million.
The so-called “alternative cinema” market, which includes live sport and theatre, is now worth £1 billion worldwide — with opera and ballet representing 40 per cent of the content.
