Theatre money will be used to beam top operas (From Ledbury Reporter)

Theatre money will be used to beam top operas

2:00pm Friday 8th March 2013 in News By Gary Bills-Geddes

STARS of world opera, ballet and music are performing live before Ledbury audiences, thanks to a grant.

The town’s Market Theatre now has a hi-tech satellite link to some top concerts and a programme of beamed-in live shows is being rolled out for the big screen, in time for the spring and summer season.

Paul Graham, the theatre’s artistic director, said: “This is top-flight entertainment on your doorstep.

“If people had to travel to London to see these shows, it would cost them a fortune, and I urge the residents of Ledbury and the surrounding areas to come along and see and hear opera and ballet attheir best.”

The new era in entertainment opened with a live broadcast from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, of Eugene Onegin.

Mr Graham said: “It was just like being there.”

The view was echoed by former Ledbury town mayor Coun Keith Francis who praised the initiative but said that the theatre was only half full that night.

Like Mr Graham, he is urging more local people to come to the shows.

The live link-ups are possible because of a £3,000 grant through the VITAL Herefordshire LEADER funding programme, which funds rural development. This has paid for the state-of-the-art satellite dish.

Next up, on Thursday March 28, at 7.15pm, will be Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, once again live from Covent Garden.

On Sunday, May 19, the Berliner Philharmoniker will perform extracts from Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the SymphonieFantastique, by Berlioz.

This will be live from Berlin, the first live foreign broadcast to the theatre.

On June 24, the action will return to Covent Garden with a Royal Opera House performance of Gloriana, by Benjamin Britten. The box office number is 01432 383663.