BBC Proms

After a bitty opening night that looks more like a sampler disc than a concert, the 2009 Proms plunge into the headline composer anniversaries with star-studded performances of Haydn’s Creation, with Rosemary Joshua and Mark Padmore as the Archangels Gabriel and Uriel; Handel’s newly ubiquitous Partenope, with Inger Dam Jensen, Andreas Scholl and Concerto Copenhagen; and Purcell’s semi-opera The Fairy Queen, in a semi-staging of Jonathan Kent’s Glyndebourne production, conducted by William Christie (July 18-21).

Lulu

Berg’s unfinished masterpiece returns to the Royal Opera’s repertoire after an absence of 25 years, in a new production by Christof Loy. Swedish debutante Agneta Eichenholz is the amoral anti-heroine, with Jennifer Larmore as her lesbian admirer, Countess Geschwitz (June 4-20, six performances).

Mahler’s Resurrection

At Birmingham Symphony Hall, the CBSO’s acclaimed young music director, Andris Nelsons, conducts two performances of Mahler’s spectacular Second Symphony, with its uplifting choral finale (May 27, 31).

Hallé Götterdämmerung

Mark Elder spreads Wagner’s epic climax to The Ring over two concerts at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall, with Katerina Dalayman and Lars Cleveman as Brünnhilde and Siegfried (May 9, 10).

Don Carlos

Opera North revives its stark, powerful Tim Albery staging of Verdi’s politico-historical masterpiece with a top-flight cast — Julian Gavin as Carlos, Alastair Miles as King Philip, Janice Watson as Elisabeth de Valois — singing in English. Richard Farnes conducts. Leeds Grand Theatre, from May 2, touring to June 24.

L’Amour de loin

The belated UK premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s neo-medieval romance is staged for English National Opera by Daniele Finzi Pasca, creator of Cirque du Soleil’s Corteo (July 3–11, four performances).

Royal Opera blockbusters

Covent Garden rounds off its 2008/09 season with stellar singers in box-office certs: La Traviata, with the American diva Renée Fleming in her first UK stage performances in almost a decade, plus Joseph Calleja and Thomas Hampson as the Germonts; The Barber of Seville, with Joyce DiDonato, Juan Diego Florez and Simon Keenlyside; and Tosca, starring Deborah Voigt, Marcello Giordani and Bryn Terfel (June/July).

Glyndebourne

Danielle De Niese revives her sensational turn as Cleopatra in Handel’s Giulio Cesare. Three new productions spotlight British directors: Richard Jones tackles Verdi’s autumnal comedy Falstaff, Jonathan Kent attempts to crack the conundrum that is Purcell’s incidental music for The Fairy Queen, and Melly Still, acclaimed for her staging of Coram Boy at the National, makes her opera debut with Dvorak’s Rusalka (May 21–Aug 28).

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