'Live' opera comes to Belfast City Hall

'Live’ opera is to return to the big screen in the grounds of City Hall next week.

Puccini’s classic ‘La Bohème’ will be broadcast from the Royal Opera House in London's Covent Garden on Thursday 17 May.

Belfast is one of 24 locations to which the production – starring Anja Harteros and Joseph Calleja in the story of a struggling poet whose life changes forever after meeting a beautiful fragile young woman – is being transmitted to mark 25 years of live broadcasts from the Royal Opera House to locations around the United Kingdom.

Appropriately, the first ever ‘live’ broadcast was of Plácido Domingo performing in ‘La Bohème’, which was transmitted from the Royal Opera House stage to an audience of hundreds gathered in Covent Garden Piazza in 1987. Now, the annual event is enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of people in towns and cities all across the country.

The broadcast will begin at 7.30pm and admission to the City Hall grounds will be free of charge. Normal Belfast City Council terms and conditions will apply. For more information, visit www.belfastcity.gov.uk/bigscreen.