Classical TV Debuts With the Web’s Richest Array of Free and Pay-Per-View Performing Arts Videos, at www.classicaltv.com

FIRST PAY-PER-VIEW BROADCAST IS THE METROPOLITAN OPERA’S SALOME

NEW YORK, April 20 /PRNewswire/ — Classical TV launches this week with “the greatest performances online” — a free library of videos of the most exciting arts performances, concerts, and special events of recent times, ranging from Handel to Herbie Hancock.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090414/NY96055-a )

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090414/NY96055LOGO-b )

Available for free at www.classicaltv.com are full-length videos of opera, ballet, drama, jazz/pop, documentaries, and more. Plus a rich array of editorial content: news, reviews, interviews, Editor’s Choice playlists, and blogs.

Included are performances from the world’s greatest stages–the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Bolshoi, Mariinsky Theatre St. Petersburg, Paris Opera, Dutch National Ballet and English National Opera, among others. The world’s greatest stars are featured: Placido Domingo, Renee Fleming, Carlos Acosta, Pina Bausch, Sarah Brightman, ABBA, and many more.

In addition, special pay-per-view events from current and recent seasons will be available, such as the Metropolitan Opera’s highly-acclaimed production of Richard Strauss’s Salome, with soprano Karita Mattila, broadcast at www.classicaltv.com starting April 20.

“Stunning,” said the New York Times, praising Mattila’s “gleaming power, eerie expressivity and… beguiling lyricism.” (The soprano drew raves for her “Dance of the Seven Veils.”)

For only $9.99, Classical TV viewers can access a high-definition streamed video of the full performance of Salome for 72 hours — a performance that was one of New York’s hottest tickets and part of the Met’s award-winning series of live, high-definition transmissions to movie theaters.

“We’re thrilled to be working with the Met and will be screening more of their current season’s operas,” says Classical TV founder/CEO Chris Hunt. “They not only offer the highest-quality productions but approach the development of new audiences as we do, in a bold, imaginative way.

“We created Classical TV to synch with the freedom consumers expect nowadays to connect with programming they want, wherever and whenever they want — at home, on their phones, in the office, as well as in the concert hall.”

Upcoming special events at www.classicaltv.com, priced at $4.99 or $9.99, include the Dutch National Ballet’s Giselle; the Metropolitan Opera’s 125th Anniversary Opening Night Gala Starring Renee Fleming; the Zurich Opera’s Cosi Fan Tutte, with Cecilia Bartoli; and a “Celebration of Dance” from the Mariinsky (Kirov) Ballet.

SOURCE Classical TV