Unlike London's opera companies, the Bavarian State Opera respect their audience and value their custom.
Instead of emailing their 2013-14 season announcement a day and half after sharing it with an ungrateful press, ROH-style, it will be streamed live on their website for everyone to see.
Tune in to www.staatsoper.de on Tuesday 19 March at 10:00 CET (9am UK). You can even send in your questions for Intendant Nikolaus Bachler and music director Kirill Petrenko to answer live.
If you can't wait that long, here's a prediction or two:
In short, six new productions are expected:
La Forza del Destino (Director: Martin Kušej, Conductor: Asher Fisch) with Jonas Kaufmann and Anja Harteros
Die Frau Ohne Schatten (Director: Krzysztof Warlikowski, Conductor: Kirill Petrenko) with Johan Botha and Adrianne Pieczonka
La Clemenza di Tito (Director: Jan Bosse, Conductor: Kirill Petrenko) with Kristine Opolais
Die Soldaten (Director: Andreas Kriegenburg, Conductor: Kirill Petrenko) with Michael Volle, Christoph Stephinger and Barbara Hannigan
Guillaume Tell (Director: Antú Romero Nunes, Conductor: Dan Ettinger) with Michael Volle, Bryan Hymel, Marina Poplavskaya
L'Orfeo (Director: David Bösch, Conductor: Ivor Bolton) with Christian Gerhaher
The 150th birthday of local boy Richard Strauss has left its mark on the rest of the season, with revivals of several classic productions amongst the usual string of Traviatas.
Returning productions may include:
Rusalka
and Eugene Onegin with Kristine Opolais, Il Trovatore with Jonas Kaufmann and Krassimira
Stoyanova, Les Contes d'Hoffmann with Joseph Calleja, Simon Boccanegra with Krassimira Stoyanova, I Capuleti e i
Montecchi with Elina Garanca, L'elisir d'amore with Pavol Breslik, Wozzeck with Simon Keenlyside, Salome with Nadja Michael, Turandot with Lise Lindstrom, Madama Butterfly, La Traviata with Diana Damrau, Ailyn Perez, and Sonya Yoncheva inter alia, Der fliegende Hollander with Evgeny Nikitin, Ariadne auf Naxos, Boris Godunov, Cosi fan tutte, Hansel und Gretel, La Cenerentola, La bohème, Babylon, La Calisto with Danielle de Niese - and a Rosenkavalier with Soile Isokoski and Alice Coote.
The annual Munich Opernfestspiele reprises the season's productions, often with starrier casts. In July 2014 it may feature Diana Damrau in La Traviata, Anja
Harteros in Tosca, Anna Netrebko in Macbeth, Erwin Schrott in Le Nozze
di Figaro, Edita Gruberova in Lucrezia Borgia, and Juan Diego Flórez in Il
barbiere di Siviglia.
*Disclaimer* - Predictions have been collated from a variety of sources, some more reliable than others (check the links for those already on the website), so double-check on Tuesday.
*UPDATE* - official season details have now been released.
