Tristan und Isolde (Sept29- Oct 18) The Swedish soprano Nina Stemme, the world’s reigning Isolde, a role she recorded with Placido Domingo and Antonio Pappano’s Royal Opera, stars in Christof Loy’s new production opposite the Tristan of the Canadian tenor Ben Heppner. The Finnish bass Matti Salimen makes a long-delayed return to Covent Garden as Marke. Pappano conducts. Royal Opera House, WC2

Le Grand macabre (Sept 17- Oct 9) La Fura dels Baus’s spectacular staging of Ligeti’s tragicomic phantasmagoria — the entire production is set on the revolving figure of a prostrate naked woman — was first seen in Brussels earlier this year. ENO’s second stab at this anarchic 1970s piece, in which Ligeti encourages us to laugh in the face of death and enjoy ourselves while we can, stars Pavlo Hunka as the Lord of Death, Nekrotzar, Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke as Piet-the-Pot and Susan Bickley as Mescalina. Coliseum, WC2

The Adventures of Mr Broucek (Oct 10-Nov 19) Janacek’s most bizarre opera, in which the gluttonous Broucek visits the moon and 15th-century Hussite Prague in his drunken stupor, gets a welcome first UK staging outside London, in a co-production by Opera North and Scottish Opera (spring 2010). John Graham Hall stars, Martin André conducts, John Fulljames directs. Opera North; tour begins Grand Theatre, Leeds

Chicago Symphony/Haitink (Sept 23, 24) With no American orchestras at the Proms, the Southbank Centre has pulled off a coup with two concerts — Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony plus Brahms’s First, and Haydn’s “Clock”, No 101, paired with Bruckner’s Symphony No 7 — marking Bernard Haitink’s “caretaker” chief conductorship of Chicago’s great orchestra before Riccardo Muti picks up the baton. RFH, SE1

Matthias Goerne (Oct 18, 20) The outstanding German baritone continues his survey of Schubert’s greatest songs, 200 of which he is in the process of recording. With Eric Schneider and Alexander Schmalcz as his pianists, his Wigmore concerts are sure-fire sellouts. Wigmore Hall, W1

BEST OF THE REST

The Philharmonia’s Vienna: City of Dreams festival comes to a climactic conclusion as Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts a complete performance of Berg’s Wozzeck, starring Simon Keenlyside (RFH, Oct 8). At the Purcell Room, Peter Maxwell Davies’s 75th birthday is celebrated with a complete cycle of his 10 “Naxos” String Quartets (Oct 9-11). The highlight of Les Arts Florissants’ 30th anniversary visits is a rare performance of Handel’s pastoral masterpiece Susanna, with Sophie Karthauser as the naked bather and William Burden and Alan Ewing as the “Peeping Tom” Elders (Barbican, Oct 25). Mariss Jansons returns to London with his Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, performing Brahms’s Fourth and Mahler’s Resurrection Symphonies (Barbican, Dec 12, 13).

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