Royal Opera House Announces Digital Theatre

Now a new initiative seems set to make
their productions available on a wider basis. On 11 September it was announced
that six Royal Opera House productions (four operas and two ballets) will be
available on-line as part of Digital Theatre Collections. Digital Theatre ( http://www.digitaltheatre.com/) is an
on-line platform which offers good quality theatrical performances in a variety
of digital formats, on-line streaming, download, iPhone apps, a dedicated
channel on the YouView TalkTalk player and on desktop.

The first four operas available are David McVicar’s production of Mozart’s
Le nozze di Figaro with Erwin Schrott and Miah Persson conducted by
Antonio Pappano, John Copley’s production of Puccini’s La Boheme with
Teodor Ilincai and Hibla Gerzmava, Kasper Holten’s 2013 production of
Eugene Onegin with Krassimira Stoyanov and Simon
Keenlysideand Richard Ayre’s production of Verdi’s La
Traviata
with Renee Fleming, Joseph Calleja and Thomas Hampson. The
ballets are Frederick Ashton’s Sylvia to music by Delibes, with Darcey
Bussll and Roberto Bolle, and Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake with Thiago
Soares and Marianela Nunez.

Further Royal Opera House productions are planned. The initiative is aimed
developing Digital Theatre into a global arts and at the launch everyone was
keen to point out that Digital Theatre’s platform gives people access
regardless of social, economic or geographic factors. It is relatively
affordable too, though if your internet connection is poor this means that your
have to invest in the full download of the opera rather than just streaming it,
which is cheaper. I had a trial of their on-line offering at the launch and was
impressed with how easy it was to use.

Robert Hugill