The Royal Opera at Covent Garden announced its plans for 2025/26 this morning, with a season that includes 23 Askonas Holt artists.

Deborah Warner’s Peter Grimes sees its first revival following the critically acclaimed 2022 premiere production. Catherine Wyn-Rogers returns from the original cast as Auntie, alongside Clive Bayley as Swallow, Christine Rice as Mrs Sedley and Jennifer France as First Niece.

Other firsts for the season are the first production of Handel’s rarely-performed Giustino on the original site (and the first UK professional staging) since the opera's premiere in 1737. Benjamin Hulett makes his Linbury Theatre debut as Vitaliano in alongside Jonathan Lemalu as Polidarte. The Royal Opera also presents its premiere production of The Makropulos Case, with Alan Oke as Count Hauk-Šendorf.

Finnegan Downie Dear returns to lead a production of The Magic Flute, with a cast that sees Julia Bullock and Lucy Crowe sharing the role of Pamina, Soloman Howard singing Sarastro and Matthew Rose as Sprecher. Soloman also sings Fafner in the third instalment of Wagner’s Ring cycle Siegfried alongside Sarah Dufresne who makes a role debut as Woodbird.

Lovers of Verdi will be treated to Rosa Feola and Andrea Mastroni singing their signature roles of Gilda and Sparafucile in Rigoletto, as well as Bekhzod Davronov and Giovanni Sala in their Royal Opera debuts singing Alfredo in La traviata, with Rachel Willis-Sørensen as Violetta.

Hrachuhí Bassénz returns as Mimi in La bohème, following a string of performances in leading roles at the Royal Opera House over the past several season, including Violetta, Desdemona and Cio-Cio San.

Also returning are Andrey Zhilikhovsky as Count Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro, and William Thomas sings the Old Hebrew in Samson et Dalila, while Alexandros Stavrakakis makes both a house and a role debut as the Frontier Guard in Boris Godunov.

The full season can be viewed here, with tickets going on sale from 2 July.