My credit card is cowering in a corner and whimpering with fear and I have been working out my opera budget for next year which I think is going to be stretched to its limit in the coming season at Covent Garden as I have just received an email from ROH with the full details of the coming season and boy there are some goodies in sight.
First up, Les Contes D'Hoffman by Offenbach. This is regarded as Offenbach's 'grand' opera as opposed to all the lighter things he is usually known for, this one is full of the most sumptuous tunes, grand arias and trios unfurling one after the other and I have loved it for years. This is the Schelesinger 1980 production still going strong, in which I was lucky enough to see Placido in the title role. Now it is to be sung by Rolando Villazon, just hope that after his rest and absence from the opera stage, he will be in good form as he also is singing in Don Carlos in June, for which I have tickets.
Korngold's Die Tote Stadt, a new production to the ROH, is in January and February 2009 which sounds intriguing. Korngold has become more appreciated as a composer over the last twenty years or so, before that snooty noses were turned up at him as he was mainly known for his film scores (Robin Hood, Captain 
Blood, Sea Hawk to name a few) and, therefore, beyond the classical pale. His violin concerto is wonderful and this will be well worth seeing, particularly as one of the cast is Gerald Finley who I saw sing Onegin last year, great performance.
Of course what has delighted me more than anything, is that the Mighty Bryn is back. After his cancellation of his Ring appearance last year which upset critics and the House, there were rumours that he would never be asked back again blah blah bla. Well, the House is nothing if not pragmatic, there have been other great names in the past who have canceled on more than one occasion, and listed among this role of honour is Pavarotti, Callas, Domingo, Gheorgiou, Alagna and more recently than Bryn, Anna Netrebko, and they always come back. With artists of such stature (perhaps stature is the wrong word in the case of Mr and Mrs Alagna, notoriety would perhaps be better as far as they are concerned) no opera house is going to go for the Never darken my doors Again bit and Bryn is such a popular artiste that it was a shoe-in that it would not be long before he was back in Floral Street.
Not only is he singing Scarpia in Tosca again (Deborah Voigt will be his Tosca - as she sings Wagner on a regular basis, this will mean that we have a Tosca worth of the title role to sing against Bryn. The second act will be something else. Angela G sang it when I saw this production when it was premiered and I was very disappointed in her), but, he is singing in the Flying Dutchman for the first time at ROH. He has done it with Welsh National Opera, which I saw, and while the sight of Bryn in full length black leather coat and hair tied back in a ponytail and singing gloriously was truly mesmerising, the production was so totally and utterly dire that I spent most of the evening with my eyes closed just listening to the music. This has happened to me often in the opera house, sadly to say more with Wagner than any other composer, and as opera is meant to be a visual as well as an aural art,
sitting in an extremely expensive seat and not watching the stage, rather diminishes the experience. So, fingers crossed, this production will be worth seeing.
Loads more tempting goodies over the next year: Renee Fleming in Traviata, Hrovostovsky as Count Luna in Trovatore, my favourite Verdi opera, Un Ballo in Maschera with Vargas and Alvarez, Barber of Seville with Simon Keenlyside as Figaro and Juan Diego Flores as Almaviva (what a stunning combo that will be). Lots of other goodies as well, Lohengrin, L'Elisir D'Amore, La Fanculla del West and more, but I think this is enough to be going on with.
As I said my credit card is bracing itself...
