Boris Godunov and Frankenstein stand out among Covent Garden’s showings for 2015 and 2016.

Amidst the plethora of overseas arts events becoming increasingly available to Australian audiences (London’s National Theatre Live, the Met in HD and the latest to join the fray: English National Opera Screenings) it’s beginning to look like home-grown companies will need to have a think about how to compete with all this first-class global product. Not only is it an opportunity to see international singers and actors unlikey to tread the boards down under, it’s available at convenient weekend showings at a fraction of the price of many live events.

One of the earliest companies to enter the fray, The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden announced yesterday the new productions due to be screened live worldwide as part of their new season from September 2015 until June 2016. So popular has the live format proven, and so important is it to the worldwide brand, that it now merits its own press launch to which Limelight was invited to send a reporter yesterday.

The impressive ROH 2015-2016 season will include a remarkable eight new commissions including the premiere of a new work by Georg Friedrich Haas entitled...