And Further Ahead

Opera Magazine's We hear that... column this month, mentions that Barry Banks will be taking the title role in a new production of The Tales of Hoffmann at ENO in Spring 2012. It will be directed by Richard Jones, conducted by Anthony Walker and will feature Clive Bayley as the villains. The big question, for me, is around the edition that will be used. ENO have a tradition of using up to date editions of the opera, whereas the Royal Opera tends to stick to the traditional version which takes no account of the discoveries made recently. So I hope that this continues.

And still on the subject of Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Natalie Dessay will be singing the heroines in Laurent Pelly's new production at the Liceu in Barcelona in 2012/13.

Music Theatre Wales will be premiering Philip Glass's new Kafka inspired opera, The Trial, in 2013.

Jonas Kaufmann is scheduled to sing the title role in David McVicar's new production of Andrea Chenier in 2015 (!) Perhaps Kaufmann will be able to convince me that the opera is actually worth hearing!