Placido Domingo, opera will be live on silver screen

Placido Domingo, star of the silver screen.

That's the new role the superstar tenor is playing today at more than 100 movie theaters in the United States, Canada and Norway that are showing a live performance from the Metropolitan Opera in New York — for little more than the price of a movie ticket.

In high definition, they'll see Domingo in the lead role of Oscar award-winning composer Tan Dun's "The First Emperor," which the 65-year-old singer premiered on the Met stage last month.

The simulcast opera at movie theaters is part of an effort by Peter Gelb, the Met's new general manager, to popularize opera and draw bigger audiences to actual performances.