The following is an excerpt from the Williams Lake Tribune:

The Opera Carmen Kicks Off New Film Series Sunday

By Gaeil Farrar - Williams Lake Tribune

Published: January 20, 2009 8:00 AM, British Columbia, Canada

About 50 season tickets have been sold for the new Royal Opera House series offered this winter and spring at the Paradise Cinemas. The series starts this Sunday at 4 p.m. with the showing of Bizet’s opera Carmen.

The special film series is being brought to the community with assistance from the Daybreak Rotary Club and Paradise Cinemas’ owner David Hothi.

The series includes two operas and three ballet productions that were recorded in high definition under optimal conditions in London’s Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. The offerings include magnificent new versions of Bizet’s Carmen and Mozart’s Le Nozze Di Figaro by the Royal Opera, and the ballets Sleeping Beauty, Tales of Beatrix Potter and Romeo and Juliet by the Royal Ballet.

“I watched half an hour of Sleeping Beauty and it was just beautiful,” says Rotarian Joy Hennig, of the production quality.

“This is the future of cinema exhibition,” says theatre owner David Hothi, who has invested in high-definition equipment to present the series at his company’s theatres in Williams Lake and Quesnel, and at the Coast Capital Playhouse in Whiterock.

The concert series is also a fundraiser for Daybreak Rotary. “David is really promoting Rotary,” Hennig says. “If this series is well received we will bring in another series next fall.”

The productions will all be shown at family friendly matinee times on Sunday afternoons at 4 p.m. which also doesn’t interfere with the regular movie schedule. The opera Carmen is set for this Sunday, Jan. 25 at 4 p.m. The ballet Sleeping Beauty is lined up for Sunday, Feb. 22 at 4 p.m. The ballet Tales of Beatrix Potter is set for Sunday, March 8, at 4 p.m. The opera Le Nozze Di Figaro is set for Sunday, March 29 at 4 p.m. and the ballet Romeo and Juliet is set for Sunday, April 19 March 29, at 4 p.m.