Carmike Cinemas is Bringing the Royal Opera House to a Theater Near You

The Royal Opera House is the home of three world-class performing companies -- The Royal Ballet, The Royal Opera, and The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House. It is a focal point for England's national and international artistic excellence, where the evolving traditions of opera and ballet are taken to the highest levels. Excellence without compromise. This is the Royal Opera House.

Starting Thursday, October 16, 2008, Carmike Cinemas will feature a series of five masterworks - including two operas and three ballets. The five stellar productions exemplify the extraordinarily high levels of artistry and entertainment attained by one of the world's foremost opera and ballet companies.

Carmen: Thursday, October 16, 7:00 p.m. and Sunday, October 19, 1:00 p.m.

Bizet's Carmen is one of those rare operas in which every number seems to be a familiar, favorite melody. It is jam-packed with sexy solos, rousing choruses, impassioned arias and delightful Spanish dances. Tuneful, colorful, evocative and dramatic!

The Spanish heat and gypsy passion of Carmen comes to life in Francesca Zambello's production, recreating the sun-drenched and sensual world of 19th century Spain, with its ranks of soldiers and crowds of peasants, gypsies and bullfighters, its spectacle and its deadly, white-hot emotions.

At the heart of the story of one woman's tangled relationships with two men is Carmen herself, played by the fabulous singer-actor Anna Caterina Antonacci. The great Italian soprano is matched by two devilishly handsome men as her love interests; steamingly sexy German tenor, Jonas Kaufmann and the smouldering Italian baritone, Ildebrando D'Arcangelo.

The Sleeping Beauty: Thursday, October 23, 7:00 p.m. and Sunday, October 26, 1:00 p.m.

Britain's Royal Ballet brings to the screen one of ballet's most loved classics. The Sleeping Beauty combines, in a single work, all the charms and virtuosity that ballet has to offer. This famous staging was created for the Royal Ballet in 1946, from the original 1890 Marius Petipa production in St. Petersburg. It was revived for the 75th anniversary celebrations of the Royal Ballet in 2006.

The Sleeping Beauty is led by two of the Royal Ballet's finest dancers; the beautiful Alina Cojocuru stars as Princess Aurora and the dark, handsome Federico Bonelli stars as Prince Florimud. Tchaikovsky's glorious score for this beautiful ballet is played by the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House.

This ballet is a great showcase of the Company's many talents and a living milestone in its history. This Sleeping Beauty's style and visual splendor are unique to The Royal Ballet.

Tales of Beatrix Potter: Thursday, October 30, 7:00 p.m. and Sunday, November 2, 1:00 p.m.

A special performance for children of all ages, and for those who are just young at heart! The London Royal Ballet's production of Tales of Beatrix Potter brings the characters from her famous stories alive on-stage.

In 1971, Fredrick Ashtown choreographed Tales of Beatrix Potter for film. Two decades later, Anthony Dowell staged Ashton's choreography for The Royal Ballet, giving the company one of its more charming offerings. The production's ingenious use of scale when designing the sets and their spectacular costumes and masks quickly draws audiences in to the wondrous world of Peter Rabbit, Jeremy Fisher and Jemima Puddleduck.

Only in the Royal Ballet's Tales of Beatrix Potter will you behold the delightful dancing of naughty mice, see Pigling Bland and Pig-Wig perform a wonderful pig pas de deux, witness an overly excited Squirrel Nutkin leap, twirl and whirl around the stage and cheer as all of the much loved characters join in the glorious grand finale. John Lanchbery's music, based mostly on forgotten Victorian melodies, is utterly captivating, inspiring spirited playing from the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, conducted by Paul Murphy.

Le Nozze Di Figaro: Thursday November 6, 7:00 p.m. and Sunday, November 9, 1:00 p.m.

Mozart's music makes Le Nozze di Figaro one of the finest jewels in the opera repertory, with a wealth of famous melodies that commence with the familiar first notes of the energetic Overture.

A London highlight of the celebrations for the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth, David McVicar's spellbinding production illuminates Mozart's masterpiece, shifting the action to a French chateau in the aftermath of the 1830 revolution. At the tragic heart of the opera, Gerald Finely's suave, dashingly self-absorbed Count and Dorothea Roschmann's passionately dignified Countess are deadlocked in a romantic contest that impacts dramatically on the court's feisty valet Figar (Erwin Schrott) and his fiancee, the sassy Susanna (Miah Persson). The late-summer beauty of Paule Constable's lighting and Tanya McCallin's evocative sets provide the perfect backdrop for the invigorating wit and emotional depth of Antonio Pappano's conducting of the Royal Opera House Orchestra.

Romeo and Juliet: Thursday, November 13, 7:00 p.m. and Sunday, November 16, 1:00 p.m.

The Royal Ballet's production of Romeo and Juliet is a major event, featuring the much anticipated partnering of extraordinary prima ballerina Tamara Rojo and superstar Carlos Acosta in the title roles.

Kenneth MacMillian's great interpretation of Shakespeare's enduring tragedy is one of the most popular works in The Royal Ballet repertory and one of the greatest examples of 20th century choreography. The setting is Renaissance Verona, where a chance meeting ignites a profound love between Romeo and Juliet, bringing with it first hope of uniting their families in peace, followed by a misunderstanding, and finally tragedy and death. Prokofiev's music is an instantly recognizable classic of the modern repertory, here complemented by choreography of beauty and touching fluidity.

Contact your local theatre for ticket prices and availability.

STATE CITY THEATER Alabama Auburn Wynnsong 16 Arkansas Fort Smith Carmike 14 Arkansas Hot Springs Central City 10 Colorado Colorado Springs Chapel Hills 15 Colorado Fort Collins Carmike 10 Delaware Dover Carmike 10 Florida Bradenton Royal Palm 20 Florida Panama City Carmike 10 Georgia Albany Wynnsong 16 Georgia Columbus Carmike 15 Georgia Savannah Carmike 10 Iowa Cedar Rapids Wynnsong 12 Iowa Des Moines Southridge 12 Illinois Champaign Beverly 18 Illinois Decatur Strand 10 Indiana Elkhart Encore Park 14 Michigan Battle Creek Lakeview Square 10 Minnesota Apple Valley Carmike 15 Minnesota Moundsview Wynnsong 15 Montana Billings Wynnsong 10 Montana Bozeman Campus Square 8 North Carolina Durham Wynnsong 15 Nebraska Scottsbluff Monument 6 Ohio Findlay Carmike 12 Ohio Saint Clairsville Ohio Valley Mall 11 Oklahoma Stillwater Carmike 10 Oregon Corvallis Carmike 12 Pennsylvania Pittsburgh Carmike 10 South Carolina Columbia Carmike 14 South Carolina Myrtle Beach Broadway 16 South Dakota Rapid City Carmike 10 Tennessee Chattanooga Wynnsong 10 Tennessee Clarksville Governor's Square 10 Tennessee Franklin Thorough 20 Tennessee Nashville Wynnsong 10 Texas Edinburg Carmike 20 Texas El Paso Carmike 16 Utah Provo Wynnsong 12 Utah West Valley City Hollywood Connection 15 Virginia Lynchburg Carmike 8 Washington Kennewick Carmike 12 Wyoming Cheyenne Frontier 20

Visit www.carmike.com for the complete list of all theatres.

About Carmike Cinemas

Carmike Cinemas, Inc. is a U.S. leader in digital cinema and 3-D cinema deployments and one of the nation's largest motion picture exhibitors. As of June 30, 2008, Carmike had 257 theatres and 2,308 screens in 36 states. Carmike's digital cinema footprint reaches 2,170 screens, of which 428 are also equipped with 3-D capability. Carmike's focus for its theatre locations is small to mid-sized communities with populations of fewer than 100,000.

SOURCE: Carmike Cinemas, Inc.

Carmike Cinemas, Inc. Dale Hurst, 706-576-3464 Director of Marketing