Tugan Sokhiev will conduct WNO's opening performance in Cardiff Bay

Half the �5 seats sold for the Welsh National Opera's (WNO) debut show at the centre have been bought by first-timers.

The company says its first performance of La Traviata in February 2005 - for which top ticket prices have also been slashed - has completely sold out.

The WNO claims its strategy to bring in newcomers is working.

The company announced in March that it was going to cut prices at the Wales Millennium Centre.

The new centre, which opens in November, boasts a 1,750-seat auditorium.

Top price tickets were cut by 25% to �35, while the 250 cheapest seats cost as little as �5 - a reduction of 37% and less than the price of many cinema tickets.

Hundreds of newcomers will be introduced into opera

As well as the opening night sell-out, Mozart's The Magic Flute on the first night of the WNO's summer season next May has already sold almost 50% of the �5 seats.

WNO marketing director Lucy Shorrocks said that reducing ticket prices had been considered "a risky thing to do".

"But we are delighted that our confidence in our ability to bring many more people to opera through making prices accessible appears to be justified," she said.

"By reducing our top-price tickets by �12, and having so many fantastic seats available at only a fiver, we are succeeding in attracting many people who have not seen our work before."

Welsh National Opera will move into the new �104m Wales Millennium Centre when it opens at the end of this year.

The new base will mean that, for the first time, that the company's rehearsal, administrative and performing base will be in one building.

It will also mean the end of a 50-year association with Cardiff's New Theatre but the opera will carry on touring around the UK.

Bryn Terfel is to open the Wales Millennium Centre, which will also be home to the Diversions dance company and five other arts organisations, at a gala weekend.