New ground will be made in the increasingly competitive field of opera and cinema when the English National Opera's new production of Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia is beamed out live in 3D, it was announced yesterday.
The ENO is collaborating with Sky Arts on something of a broadcasting first. On 23 February those people with a 3D TV will be able to watch the opera live on Sky 3D while those without will be able to see it live in 3D at about 15-20 cinemas.
The broadcast will pip the 3D – but not live – cinematic release of the Royal Opera House's production of Carmen on 5 March, revealed in the Guardian last month.
The move in to 3D by the UK's leading opera houses reflects the runaway success of opera at the pictures which was pioneered by the Met in New York. It is part of a wider ambition of attracting new audiences – the loose message being that you don't have to be old, rich or posh to enjoy opera.
ENO's Lucrezia Borgia will have added interest in that it will be directed by Mike Figgis – his first opera. Figgis made his name in Hollywood with films such as Leaving Las Vegas, which earned him an Oscar nomination, and he has been an increasingly experimental film-maker since then. The new staging will also feature a film that Figgis shot in Rome which will run as a parallel narrative at interludes through the opera on stage.
John Berry, the ENO's artistic director, said working with Sky Arts reflected the company's "ambition to create an exciting future for opera and reach out to a wider audience through innovative collaborations with the wider arts".
For people without 3D technology the production will be broadcast live on Sky Arts 2 (HD) and be shown in 2D at other cinemas at a later date.
