That kind of bullshit isn’t limited to Auntie Beeb, it’s rampant here in America too. What amazes me is that they never think it through: fine, someone gets their interest piqued by a “Boheme” on the widescreen in the plaza at Covent Garden. Are they they going to pony up the dosh to sit even in the gods at the ROH with those high prices? And the big, dirty secret about opera: it’s very very very time and effort intensive to get to the point where you can enjoy it. It’s one thing for punters to like Nessun Dorma, that doesn’t mean they’ll be queuing up for Pelleas et Melisande or whatever.

Jan Younghusband, the BBC’s commissioning editor for music and events, said: “Opera is a serious art form, but it is also a great piece of entertainment and with the broad range of programmes the BBC will be delivering, I hope it will show that opera is great fun and bring it to a wider audience.

“Opera can communicate in a much broader way when you take it out on to the streets, so I hope that by showing how accessible it is, more people will come to it.”