The Royal Opera House today launches Royal Opera House Cinema, its new cinema screening venture which will transmit select performances of opera and ballet to more than 700 cinemas worldwide.
This is the first time that the cinema season has offered exclusively Royal Opera and Royal Ballet titles. The 2011/12 Cinema Season features ten productions from the world renowned Covent Garden stage, five live and five recently recorded productions including Madam Butterfly in 3D.
The productions star the best
International Artists performing today including Angela Gheorghiu,
Joyce DiDonato, Jonas Kaufman,
Bryn Terfel, Principals of The Royal Ballet such as Lauren Cuthbertson, Sergei Polunin and Steven McRae and conductors Antonio Pappano, Music Director of The Royal Opera, Mark Elder
John Eliot Gardiner and Royal Ballet Music Director
Barry Wordsworth.
Angela Gheorghiu, one of the leading sopranos in the world today, stars in the first three Royal Opera productions; Faust, Adriana Lecouvreur and Tosca.
Hailed as ‘the world's most glamorous opera star' (New York Sun), Angela sings the role of Marguerite in David McVicar's vivid and theatrical production of Gounod's Faust which goes live into cinemas on Wednesday 28 September. The star cast also features Vittorio Grigolo as Faust and Dmitri Hvorostovsky as Valentin. Faust was once the most popular and most frequently performed opera of all and is renowned for its many famous arias. This production brings together all the elements that made the 19th century opera a worldwide phenomenon.
Angela Gheorghiu also takes the title role in David McVicar's glamorous production of Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur. The opera was recorded during its premiere run at Covent Garden in November 2010 when it achieved great critical acclaim. Jonas Kaufmann sings the role of Maurizio, Count of Saxony, Olga Borodina as Princesse de Bouillon with Alessandro Corbelli as the infatuated impresario Michonnet, and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House under the baton of Mark Elder.
The third opera of the Season to feature Angela Gheorghiu is Tosca with Jonas Kaufmann and
Bryn Terfel, conducted by Antonio Pappano. The sumptuous production is by
Jonathan Kent with designs by
Paul Brown.
It was at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden that Angela Gheorghiu first sang her much acclaimed La traviata in 1994 when the BBC cleared its schedules in order to broadcast her breathtaking performance. At one rehearsal the conductor Sir Georg Solti said: "I was in tears. I had to go out. The girl is wonderful. She can do everything." The performance was also filmed and recorded by Decca. Newspapers and magazines noticed that "A star is born". Since then Ms Gheorghiu has been in constant demand in opera houses and concert halls around the world.
Setting the Royal Opera House Cinema Season apart from all other classical cinema offerings is The Royal Ballet. One of the finest performing ballet companies in the world will be screened in three live broadcasts. The Royal Ballet's enduring cornerstone work The Sleeping Beauty and Kenneth MacMillan's powerful balletic take on Romeo and Juliet are both led by Principal dancers Lauren Cuthbertson and Sergei Polunin, and
Frederick Ashton's charming and light-hearted family ballet La fille mal gardée led by Principal dancers Roberta Marquez and Steven McRae. All three ballets feature the incredible dramatic energy and precision for which the 97-strong Royal Ballet is world renowned.
The Royal Opera House continues to lead the way in opera, ballet, music and dance in cinema both 2D and 3D and the many platforms available including digital downloads, CD, DVD and BLU-ray all distributed through Opus Arte. Each year the number of cinema sites in the UK alone that carry Royal Opera House screenings is steadily increasing with more than 140 sites taking the entire Royal Opera House Cinema Season, and totalling more than 700 sites worldwide.
The generous support of Bank of America Merrill Lynch is already enabling the Royal Opera House to expand access to great performances far beyond the current level enabling people to have direct contact with both live and recorded productions in their home towns, wherever that may be across the world.
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