Enabled through breathtakingly complex digital technology, these digital cinematic streams – or ‘simulcasts’, as the Met prefers – are described by the opera house as a ‘revolution’. For a fraction of the price of a ‘real’ ticket, they allow millions of people who ordinarily would have neither the geographic proximity nor financial resources to go to the opera, theatre or ballet to enjoy a ringside seat at sumptuous, world-class productions. Without compromising on sound or visual quality – the pictures and sound are gloriously crisp– they offer a far more relaxed and informal way to enjoy arts often viewed as impenetrably fancy: Puccini with popcorn, if you like, or Jenufa in jeans. And they are also proving to be a welcome revenue stream for cash-strapped independent cinema chains, who not only gain considerable cultural cachet from showing quality art productions but benefit from both higher ticket prices (a ticket to an opera screening costs around $18-25, pricier than a Hollywood movie) and from attracting considerable audiences mid-week, when the cinema might otherwise be empty. Last season, I was tickled to learn, the Royal Ballet’s live cinema relay of Tchaikovsky’s seasonal favourite The Nutcracker beat the James Bond movie Skyfall at the cinema box-office, and came second only to The Hobbit. This year, the number of live opera, ballet and theatre productions that will be available to global cinema audiences is bigger than ever, with two million Britons expected to partake. ‘Event cinema’, as it is being dubbed, is now worth an estimated £15m ($23m) in the UK alone and shows no sign of abating.

“It is an extraordinary, wonderful complement to the experience of seeing opera and ballet live,” says the CEO of the Royal Opera House, Alex Beard. “It’s emphatically not a substitute for being there, when the atoms the singers are expelling enter your ears, but it is another way in to these remarkable art forms. You can see it in the interval tweets, in the social media: you really get a sense of being part of an extraordinary moment.”

Screen appeal

The Royal Opera and Ballet are institutions with national accountability, benefitting from generous public subsidies. The expansion into cinemas across the UK is therefore an important aspect of their public service remit. But “being able to play to audiences across the globe” is also vital, says Beard. “We are world companies, drawn from the world’s talent, now performing on a world stage.” He talks with genuine excitement about the “special relationships” that can be fostered with international audiences, not least due to geographic links with their principal dancers and singers.

For Richard Abramowitz, who along with Arts Alliance Distribution is spearheading the distribution of UK ‘event cinema’ in America, the relationships build on the fact that British culture has “always had a powerful appeal to the US. The response has been even greater than I’d expected,” he says. . “But we’re talking about great presentation of the highest calibre performances to a very cultured audience that now has the opportunity to see anything they want, live, a couple of blocks down the road from where they live, every other week. The experience is so satisfying that we’re getting repeat viewers, who are spreading the word.”