The museum even runs a weekly Cantonese opera appreciation class in English on Saturday afternoons, which features a performance by a local troupe.

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These are often as small as an invitation to a reception, a discount in a museum shop or a backstage tour at the Royal Opera House.

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That thoughtfulness is in evidence not just through their patronage of the arts (he is chairman of the Queen Sofia Spanish Institute and serves on the board at the Metropolitan Opera and at Carnegie Hall, and she is a trustee at the Metropolitan Museum of Art), but also in their generosity with their friends.

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The management team hope to show live broadcasts of the Met Opera, the Bolshoi ballet and other cultural events such as interactive exhibitions from the British Museum.

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Chicago has always understood the power of the arts, too, in helping it to carve out a strong identity (its art museum is staggering), and sitting among those iconic riverside buildings is the Lyric Opera of Chicago, a tempting mix of neo-classical exterior and golden art nouveau and art deco interior.

BBC: Musical destinations: Chicago