The Royal Opera House hopes to reach out to new audiences by copying the Metropolitan Opera in New York and beaming live performances of its opera, ballet and concerts straight from its auditorium into cinemas across Britain and beyond.

Instead of paying up to £195 for a ticket to Mozart's Don Giovanni or Frederick Ashton's Ondine, the public will be able to see live productions for a standard £20 in British cinemas from Edinburgh to Southampton, the ROH announced yesterday.

The cost may seem steep, particularly as cinema tickets are currently priced at up to £12, but it is a fraction of what someone outside London would have to pay for travel and a hotel room, not to mention seats, to see an opera or ballet at Covent Garden.

It is also less than the £25 that British audiences have been prepared to pay to see live screenings from the Metropolitan Opera, New York.

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The screenings have proved a massive hit in the past two years, dispelling the perception of opera houses as musical temples for an elite.

During the Met's 2007-08 season, more than 920,000 people in 23 countries watched eight operas, about 70,000 more than the total audience of the Met itself.

Within recent months its La Bohème was seen by 170,000 people in cinemas around the world, and its Magic Flute filled 91 per cent of 14,500 seats in 60 cinemas in the United States.

Cinema audiences benefit from seeing close-up details of performers that would be indiscernible even from the best seats in an opera house.

Performances will be shot with seven cameras that constantly cut between multiple angles, close-ups, long shots, medium shots and bird's-eye views of the stage.

So far 112 cinemas — 63 in Britain, including cinemas from the Odeon, City Screen/Picturehouse and Vue chains, the rest in Europe, from Grand Canary to Norway — have signed a deal with the ROH.

Gabriel Swartland, of City Screen/Picturehouse, Britain's largest independent chain of cinemas, said that it had been overwhelmed by the interest in the Met's screenings of lunchtime performances that went out at 5pm UK time.

The demand for tickets is so great that some cinemas have already sold out performances as far ahead as next April.

Mr Swartland said: “We have really high hopes for the live ROH.”

Although many of the audience were already opera-lovers, the company's market research shows that up to 50 per cent watching the performance in a cinema had sampled opera for the first time, “and were coming back”, Mr Swartland said. “They're most surprised by the sheer magnificence of the experience.”

Asked why the Met charges only $22 (£11) in American cinemas, while the ROH is charging £20 (with children's concessions), Tony Hall, the chief executive of the ROH, said that the opera house could not go lower without a sponsor. Discussions are under way with various individuals.

The ROH will split the box-office profits with the cinema chains, offsetting the £60,000 cost of the screenings against sales of DVDs and other products. Part of the cost is from fitting cinemas with the best digital sound systems.

The ROH's first live screening kicks off on September 8 with Don Giovanni, the opening night of the ROH's 2008-09 season, when tickets within the auditorium will also be slashed to between £7.50 and £30, thanks to sponsorship.

Ashton's Ondine, created for the Royal Ballet, will be seen on June 3 next year. Concerts include Handel's Messiah with the Academy of Ancient Music, which will be screened live from the Chapel of King's College, Cambridge, on Palm Sunday, April 5.

Mr Hall said that live screenings were among many initiatives to dispel the elitist image of opera. They include family days where the top price is £12.50.

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