Met Opera to launch radio station

The Met in New York is one of the world's leading opera houses

New York's celebrated Metropolitan Opera is to launch a satellite radio station to broadcast four live performances a week in North America.

Metropolitan Opera Radio, on the Sirius satellite radio network, will also air classic recordings from the archive.

The service will launch next week with the opening night gala of Anthony Minghella's English National Opera staging of Puccini's Madama Butterfly.

"There's nothing like the Met," Sirius's Scott Greenstein said.

The announcement follows agreements to screen six live performances from the Met's upcoming season in cinemas in North America and Europe.

"The Met is the talk of the opera world because of all these new initiatives," the opera company's general manager Peter Gelb told the Associated Press.