Four performances of the Bolshoi Ballet are to be beamed live from Moscow to 300 cinema screens around the world as part of a tie-up with French movie house giant Gaumont-Pathe, the firm said on Friday.
The shows will be broadcast over a six-month period starting December 19 on cinema screens in 12 countries including the United States, Britain, Germany and France, under a partnership with Gaumont’s subsidiary CielEcran.
Half a dozen opera houses and orchestras around the world — from La Scala in Milan to the Berlin Philharmonic — have so far followed the lead of New York’s "Met," which launched an ambitious scheme of live opera transmissions at the cinema for its 2006-2007 season.
"This is the first operation on its scale for ballet," said Marc Welinski, the managing director of CielEcran, which has been broadcasting productions by the Metropolitan Opera to French cinemas since 2008.
Filmed in high-definition using 10 cameras, the Bolshoi series will kick off with the "The Nutcracker" on December 19, followed by "Giselle" and "Class-Concert" on January 23, "Don Quichotte" on March 6 and "Coppelia" on May 29.
Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Switzerland are also taking part in the operation.
