The Royal Opera House will be hoping for a Xmas tingle in the cash registers as they dust off a selection of tried and tested offerings for the festive season. First up are the faded charms of Der Rosenkavalier, tinselled up for its omgyetanother revival with Soile Isokoski, Sophie Koch and Lucy Crowe. Kirill Petrenko conducts.
The syrup-drenched and even more ancient La bohème returns with luxuriously-costumed operatubbies pleading unconvincing poverty beneath its spacious mansards. Andris Nelsons, Paul Wynne Griffiths and Maurizio Benini conduct, though not at the same time, and the mix'n'match casts include Piotr Beczala, Hibla Gerzmava and Rebecca Evans amongst many, many others.
More appealing, and certainly cheaper, might be the child-friendly Enchanted Pig in the Linbury Studio, complete with starring swine flu survivor.
Otherwise it's a ballet-heavy month at Covent Garden. So where have all the singers gone? Wigmore Hall's December line up includes recitals by Christine Brewer, Christian Gerhaher, Bejun Mehta, Patricia Rosario, Sergei Leiferkus, Ewa Podles and on 22 December Julius Drake's 50th birthday concert features Sophie Daneman, Alice Coote, Joyce Didonato, Derek Lee Ragin, Ian Bostridge, Mark Padmore, Gerald Finley and Christopher Maltman. Not bad.
ENO meanwhile lumber on with their limp Messiah and ghastly Turandot before surrendering the premises to ballet for the next few months. If curiosity can't keep you away, don't pay more than £20 for a ticket.
The most promising of many competing Messiahs looks to be the Barbican's 9 December offering with the English Concert conducted by Harry Bicket and featuring Lucy Crowe, Patricia Bardon, Allan Clayton and James Rutherford.
Also at the Barbican (on 3 and 6 December) is Sir Colin Davis's eagerly-awaited concert version of Verdi's Otello with Torsten Kerl, Gerald Finley, Allan Clayton and Anne Schwanewilms.
Birmingham Opera Company's version offers an alternative Othello for anyone willing to make the trip. With a reduced orchestra and mostly local singers, it promises an interactive experience as cast and audience are manoeuvred around a Birmingham warehouse. (The BBC's Culture Show on 3 December will delve further).
At Kings Place, the Classical Opera Company (of recent Artaxerxes fame) celebrate Handel in Italy with a selection of his vocal music including Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno on 3 and 5 December.
And the following week, Transition_Projects take over King's Place for a series of recitals under the heading Darkness and Light. Soprano Claire Booth features in several - a highlight should be her Pierrot Lunaire (left) with accompanying video on 11 December.
At the cinema, La Scala's prima, which is Carmen featuring Jonas Kaufmann, will be broadcast live to Covent Garden Odeon on 7 December. And Contes d'Hoffmann comes live from the Met on 19 December - at the time of writing the BFI IMAX still has tickets.
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