Scottish Opera and the Royal Opera House in London could be on the verge of a ground-breaking collaboration, leading to the filming of the national company's performances for sale on CD and DVD.

This week, the Royal Opera House sealed an unprecedented £5.7m purchase of the leading classical music and dance production and distribution company, Opus Arte, and will release hun-dreds of DVDs of productions from other opera houses in Europe as well as its own works. As part of its future plans, it will now seek to link up with Scottish Opera in an bid to film and sell its performances, a first for the Glasgow-based organisation.

Last night, a spokeswoman for Opus Arte, which has a catalogue of 140 titles, 40 of them by the Royal Opera and Royal Ballet, confirmed: "We are hoping now to work with opera companies all over Europe, develop our catalogues and we want to work with Scottish Opera - in fact that is an ambition of ours."

Alex Reedijk, the general manager of Scottish Opera, last night revealed that Opus Arte was in informal talks with Scottish Opera last year, and reached an agreement in principle concerning the possible filming of productions north of the border.

Although it is too late to film the opera's landmark Ring cycle, or currently popular productions such as Madame Butterfly, he said the potential link up with the Royal Opera was an ambitious and optimistic one. Previously, a stumbling block to filming was the sheer cost - nine cameras are used in recording and the expense was considered prohibitive to Scottish Opera.

Now Opus Arte is owned by another publicly subsidised company, Mr Reedijk said it may be more possible to arrange recordings. "I welcome this approach absolutely, it is a no-brainer," he said. "DVD production will become, in time, an interesting and increasingly important part of our relationship with our audience.

"It really enhances the experience, and although it will never actually replace, in my view, going to an opera and seeing it live, but it gives you great sound, and great visuals Opus Arte has a very distinguished back catalogue and yes, we want Scottish Opera to be in there too."

Scottish Opera is undergoing something of a relaunch after years of crisis - now stable, it recently launched a new season featuring a series of 15-minute operas written by leading authors including Ian Rankin and William Boyd.

The Royal Opera House is also planning to screen its own productions live in cinemas, via podcasts and as interactive DVDs as a result of the deal, and Scottish Opera is now also open to such innovations.

As part of the new deal with Opus Arte, profits made from the DVDs, the Royal Opera House said, will be put back into productions.

Opus Arte managing director Hans Petri said: "We can take the opera to people instead of people having to come to the opera house.

Dame Judith Mayhew Jonas, chairman of the board of trustees of the Royal Opera House, said: "It's not enough to just be one of the international houses that puts on brilliant productions. We recognise that we need to join the new digital game of owning our content."