PERFORMANCES from La Scala, the legendary opera house, are to be beamed live to London.

The Curzon Chelsea and Curzon Richmond cinemas are to join 60 locations around the world in receiving the first broadcasts from Milan. The season starts on 7 December with Don Carlo by Giuseppe Verdi. It will be transmitted by satellite in high definition and surround sound.

Christine Costello, co-founder of More2Screen, the company behind the deal, said recordings of La Scala opera had proved popular when tested earlier in the year. But the opera house had never had the capacity to broadcast live until now. "When it's live you get the sense that anything could happen - whether it's opera or anything else. There was an opera where the audience at La Scala booed Roberto Alagna on stage [for example]," she said.

The Teatro alla Scala, founded in 1778, is following the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the Royal Opera House in extending its reach through the big screen. Tickets will cost £25, slightly more than the typical ticket for Covent Garden's opera cinema screenings.

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