The opera season got off to a grand start at the Metropolitan Opera in New York (www.metopera.org, www.operainfo.org) with the Euroradio transmission of Mozart’s Idomeneo live from the Lincoln Center on Saturday 9 December.

The 20 operas of the season – added to which are two Euroradio transmissions of MET archives, featuring in particular the 20 January 1956 performance of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor starring Maria Callas – will become 400 broadcasts by more than 25 radio stations, one-third more than in previous years.

This record increase in the number of transmissions is mainly due to the fact that the new MET general manager, Peter Gelb, announced at the EBU Music plenary last May that he was to offer the transmissions free of charge to EBU Radio members.

This is because Peter Gelb believes that opera houses have a duty to collaborate with all broadcasters. We would also like to highlight the launch of a 24-hour radio station devoted exclusively to MET opera, available in North America on the Syrius radio satellite, and six operas broadcast in HDTV in North American and European cinemas.