One of the reasons for us getting a motorised dish was so that my wife could watch the French channels as she speaks French... But she doesn't really keep an eye on the listings, just watches occasionally to "keep her ear in" as she puts it...

Do you know which channels in particular we need to keep an eye on? Unfortunately a lot of the main ones require a viewing card which we don't have, so we only watch the free ones.

There are three or four French channels on 5Wesr that are free, mainly the french channels need a card. Plus don't forget ARTE

Those are the ones we watch... there are a few on other satellites too, but not many.

Which channels carry the Paris Productions though?

Apart from France 24 most of the other channels seem to belong to Canal, which is subscription, so time to dip into the old wallet!

I've caught a couple of live broadcasts on French television when I've been satellite/channel hopping in the past. Unfortunately, as I hadn't known they were on, they were partway through by the time I found them. They were definitely FTA on one of the main French channels, almost certainly France 2, 3 or 5.

A while back I found something on a Hungarian channel, I think, I can't even find the channel again now...

MONDAY 03 SEPTEMBER

Documentary Open Opera - Who is Carmen? Premiere Arte 10:55 CET, 95 min

SUNDAY 09 SEPTEMBER - Not too sure about this one, never seen/heard it. But I like Donizetti so will definitely be watching/recording.

Opera Roberto Devereux Bavarian State Opera in Munich National Theater 2004 BR-alpha 20:15 CET, 135 min

Thanks for that, I hope I have better luck than I did with "Nabucco". The recording on the HDD was titled Nabucco, but what I'd recorded was anything but! Looks as though the schedule may have been changed but the EPG wasn't updated.

I haven't checked mine yet..

Don't understand this I watched the transmission live as transmitted, and was wonderful! BRalpha 7.15pm

Just checked mine too and it all appears to be there...

just a thought, did you forget the one hour time difference, or perhaps tuned BR and not BRalpha ?

I used the EPG to set it to timer record and it was listed as Nabucco on my HDD so I know I had time and channel correct. I'm putting it down to yet another glitsch on my extremely temperamental receiver. It'll be interesting to see if I get the "Roberto Devereux" tomorrow!

The friend who first told me about FTA satellite has just been staying with me and mentioned that TVP Kultura, the Polish cultural channel on Astra 19.2 sometimes shows opera. I've just been flicking through the EPG, which has been an interesting experience given that I don't speak a word of Polish! I think there's some sort of concert on Tue 11th Sept, 18.20 - 19.30 BST featuring arias from Mozart, Bellini and Donizetti operas.

Its a shame you didn't get the Nabucco. As I mentioned before, this performance is on YouTube, but recorded from the satellite broadcast and not very good quality.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xz6GBsJltxE

According to the programme notes-

The program of famous opera arias performed by Zdislava Donat: 10:59:31 - WA Mozart - Queen of the Night aria from the second act of the opera "The Magic Flute", 11:02:55 - V. Bellini - Amina's aria from the third act of the opera "La Sonnambula" , 11:09:40 - WA ..

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3 Sat are showing 12 hours worth of stuff on Monteverdi including 3 complete operas: Orpheus, Odysseus and Poppea, live from the Komische Oper in Berlin. Starts at 11.30 BST, Sunday, September 16th.

Regie-Theater warning: According to the blurb we can expect a fresh, bold and unusual interpretation of the operas and some of the music has been "refreshed".

Why on earth do they think these wonderful operas need any "modernisation" at all. Beats me ! but as I have said before, I am old-fashioned.

Yes it's very rare indeed that I find myself pleasantly surprised by the "modern take"... just surprised, all too often!

Talking of which, did anyone actually like the dreadful cacophony that they opened the last night of the proms with?

The Met opera season will soon begin, details of all performances 'liveinHD': on the Met web-site-

http://www.metoperafamily.org/metope.../LiveinHD.aspx

or I like this site-

http://www.picturehouses.co.uk/cinem...ons_Festivals/

This is my local cinema which shows all the satellite transmissions of the Met also National Theatre, Glyndebourne, ,Royal Opera House, and the Bolshoi.

All the details are shown and the timings are UK times.

Great start with L'Elisir d'Amore and Anna singing Adina, sadly not Rolando singing Nemorino though... For that I'll just have to stick to my old DVD...

Just a quick reminder about these tomorrow...

Yes, I saw the trailers for these on 3Sat yesterday. I will not be watching the operas.

I don't recall Monteverdi actually specifying that the chorus should have their knobs out - but I suppose it was the Berlin COMIC Opera.

makes you wonder just what target audience the director was aiming at

Well, I did warn you It wasn't improved by the German either.