HISPASAT and Barcelona's Opera House, the Gran Teatre del Liceu, renew their collaboration agreement to broadcast operas via satellite

December 21, 2020

HISPASAT, the Spanish satellite telecommunications operator, and the Gran Teatre del Liceu Foundation have signed a renewal agreement today in Barcelona to broadcast three operas live via satellite, both in Spain as well as abroad. These broadcasts form part of the theatre's Multimedia Project, which is focused on developing and promoting opera culture.

The signing ceremony was attended by the president of HISPASAT, Jordi Hereu, and the president of the Board of Trustees of the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Salvador Alemany. The president of the Spanish operator stated that “for HISPASAT it is an honour to continue collaborating with the Liceu of Barcelona and to keep providing our technology for these types of projects. Our satellites are undoubtedly the best way to broadcast these shows and therefore to contribute to promoting culture. They will allow Liceu to bring its stage beyond the theatre walls and reach distant audiences who will be able to enjoy the opera shows throughout Spain and beyond our borders within the coverage of HISPASAT's satellites.

Salvador Alemany stated that “Our close collaboration with HISPASAT has allowed us to broadcast opera shows internationally in the past and will continue to allow us to do so in the future. This is one of the fundamental pillars of the Gran Teatre del Liceu. The multimedia genre is and will continue to be a driver to reach every home in the world with a unique product with exquisite quality. Liceu will once again be for everyone, and this is why our close collaboration with HISPASAT is essential to make this complex process easier and more accessible. I am certain that in the near future Liceu will implement more projects that rely on this scalability and to keep projecting Liceu’s image worldwide.”

Through this agreement, the Gran Teatre del Liceu will offer Lucia di Lammermoor by Gaetano Donizetti (19 July 2021), which will be broadcast live to cinemas across the world, as well as La Bohème by Giacomo Puccini (2 July 2021), which is included in the schedule for “Liceu a la fresca”, a project to bring opera to the streets so that as many people as possible can enjoy the show.

The agreement is part of HISPASAT's Sustainability policy and its commitment to help Spanish institutions to bring their culture to the public. With this agreement, HISPASAT will help the Liceu to open up to the outside world, allowing its stage to extend well beyond the theatre's walls to reach other audiences in different parts of Spain and around the world. This way, the theatre's artistic performances can benefit from satellite technology to overcome physical barriers and bring the opera to other settings, thus making it accessible to a much greater number of spectators.