One company bouncing back with a vengeance following two years of disruption of the global entertainment scene is Palace Opera & Ballet. Between October 2022 and August 2023, Australia’s leading broadcaster of important European arts events plans to screen almost twice as many HD productions as were seen last year. A host of international talent will be on display in intriguing stagings – many of them new – from Paris, Rome and La Scala, Milan.

The centrepiece, however, will be seven productions from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, the British company’s most substantial cinema season ever. 

“The Royal Opera are committed to bringing world-class performances to audiences across the globe,” Oliver Mears, Director of The Royal Opera, tells Limelight. “We want to ensure that people everywhere have access to culture, and our cinema program is at the very centre of this project – ensuring that, as a truly national opera company, we reach far beyond the [UK] capital and bring the very best of our work to opera lovers wherever they live.”

The works that will feature over the coming year are mostly familiar mainstream fare – The Marriage of Figaro, Madama Butterfly, Turandot, La Bohème, The Barber of Seville – but apart from the...