Hampson and Urmana will appear together in a revival of Verdi's Macbeth.

Other new productions for the company include Wagner's Siegfried and G‹tterd‹mmerung, both directed by Keith Warner and marking the third and fourth installments of the Royal Opera's new Ring cycle; Il barbiere di Siviglia, directed by Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leiser; and Le nozze di Figaro, directed by David McVicar.

David Pountney's version of Nielsen's Maskerade will make its Covent Garden debut, and the company will continue its celebration of the Michael Tippett centenary with a revival of the composer's The Midsummer Marriage.

The schedule is rounded out with revivals of La fanciulla del West, Un ballo in maschera, Wozzeck, The Bartered Bride, La traviata, Turandot, Don Pasquale, and a double-bill of Duke Bluebeard's Castle and Erwartung. The company's chamber-opera program at the Linbury Studio includes Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream and Mozart's Il re pastore.

The Royal Ballet's season was also announced, and includes performances of Kenneth MacMillan's Manon and Romeo and Juliet, Frederick Ashton's Sylvia and La Fille mal gard_e, and Peter Wright's Giselle and The Nutcracker. A production of Ninette de Valois' Sleeping Beauty will celebrate her establishment of the company, as the Vic-Wells Ballet, 75 years ago.

Mixed programs on the schedule include works by Glen Tetley, Andr_e Howard, Alastair Marriott, George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Mikhail Fokine, Christopher Wheeldon, and Matjash Mrozewski, as well as Ashton, Valois, and MacMillan.

The season begins with a celebration of the bicentenary of Danish dancer and choreographer August Bournonville, with Johan Koborg creating Bournonville's La Sylphide along with works by Flemming Flindt and Ashton.