Munich Opera festival 2009 opens (June 30) and closes with Verdi (July 31) -- Aida (with Barbara Frittoli in a production staged by Christoph Nel and conducted by Daniele Gatti) & Falstaff will be the tasty bread wrapped around a really cool program -- for example, the festival première of “Lohengrin” (July 5), conducted by Kent Nagano, staged by Richard Jones with Jonas Kaufmann, Anja Harteros and Michaela Schuster.
The unsinkable Edita Gruberova will appear in Donizetti’s “Lucrezia Borgia” (July 1). Angela Gheorghiu -- if she doesn't cancel as she so often does, the asterisk is always needed with her -- is scheduled to appear in a gala concert with the Bavarian State Orchestra on July 27; Rolando Villazón will be once again Werther” (July 4) with Vesselina Kasarova. And much more, among which recitals with Diana Damrau (July 5), Waltraud Meier (July 20) and Jonas Kaufmann (July 26).