Launched today, The Opera Platform is a new website which will broadcast and archive (for six months) full opera productions from some of Europe's leading opera companies, including Welsh National Opera, The Royal Opera and Teatro Real Madrid. It is David McVicar's production of Verdi's La traviata from Madrid that will serve as the launch broadcast for The Opera Platform today at 19h55 CET.

The first opera to be streamed in full from The Royal Opera will be Szymanowski's Król Roger, which will be broadcast on The Opera Platform on May 16. Kasper Holten, the Royal Opera's Director of Opera said, ‘This is a fantastic European-wide initiative offering opera lovers and newcomers to opera a chance to enjoy the very best that Europe has to offer for free! I am particularly thrilled that our brand new production of Król Roger is the first to be captured for this new platform for streaming opera. This new means of getting relatively unknown treasures to a wide audience is very exciting for all of us, and I am personally looking forward to seeing a whole range of new productions and works in the forthcoming months.’

Other upcoming highlights include Sibelius's Kullervo from Finnish National Opera conducted by Jukka-Pekka Saraste (May 23), Wagner's Götterdämmerung from the Vienna Staatsoper led by Sir Simon Rattle (June 7) and Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail from Festival d’Aix-en-Provence conducted by Jérémie Rhorer.

You will be able to watch Verdi's La traviata live below when the broadcast begins: