Opera Scotland

New Season of Metropolitan Opera live transmissions

Posted 26 Sep 2011

The new season of live screenings from the Metropolitan Opera has been announced.  They are to be screened live in High Definition in five cinema auditoriums across Scotland, being the Renfrew Street Cineworld in Glasgow, Aberdeen's Belmont cinema, the Pavilion in Galashiels, Dundee Contemporary Arts (DCA) in Dundee and the Edinburgh Cameo. The Cameo also shows a deferred relay, branded as an 'Encore'.

See our listings for details.

Opera Scotland estimate the number of attendances at opera-related events at around 120,000 each year -and now we have to add in the Metropolitan Opera, whose screenings clearly attract over 12,000 extra customers. This does not take into account other 'alternative content' cinema screenings in Scotland relating to opera, including the Royal Opera House, Glyndebourne, ENO and Bayreuth screenings and a growing number of performances transmitted live on webcasts.

We intend to return to this topic in the future. Can these attendances be seen as clear evidence of an undersupply of live performances in Scotland?