Bryn Terfel (his son's once-broken finger permitting), Rolando Villazon (his voice and general state of health permitting), Anna Netrebko (baby-feeding duties permitting), Juan Diego Florez (if he doesn't eat any more fish), Roberto Alagna (if they don't boo him), Aleksandra Kurzak (who has already pulled out of Berg's Lulu), Deborah Voigt (if she can hold down her lunch), Renee Fleming, Joyce DiDonato, Danielle De Niese and Dmitri Hvorostovsky are among the singers supposed to appear for the 2008-2009 season of the Royal Opera House.
Antonio Pappano is in teh haus and will conduct six operas. The ROH season will flaunt eight new productions -- among them the potentially-deadly but extremely interesting La Calisto, a Cavalli surprise -- and Haendel's Acis and Galatea. Other new productions include Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, Rossini's Matilde di Shabran and, in a fit of modernism, Lulu, by the composer otherwise known as Carlos Kleiber Sr.