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A passion for opera...

The first weekend of the season is a feast of opera in which two leading opera stars – Bryn Terfel and Plácido Domingo – appear on successive nights, picking up on the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s opera focus across television and radio in 2010.

Bryn Terfel performs the role of Hans Sachs in Wagner's The Mastersingers Of Nuremberg, broadcast on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Four, with the Orchestra and Chorus of Welsh National Opera conducted by their recently appointed Music Director, Lothar Koenigs (17 July).

The following day Plácido Domingo performs the title-role in Verdi's Simon Boccanegra with Royal Opera forces conducted by Antonio Pappano (18 July).

This is only Domingo's second ever Prom, following his sensational debut in Wagner's Die Walküre in 2005 – and his first as a baritone.

There's more opera when Robin Ticciati makes his Proms debut conducting Humperdinck's fairytale opera Hänsel And Gretel with Glyndebourne Festival Opera, featuring Alice Coote and Lydia Teuscher in the title roles (31 August), and Sir Simon Rattle conducts the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and a glittering cast in Act 2 of Wagner's Tristan And Isolde (1 August).

The Last Night of the Proms aims to bring the country together in the largest-ever operatic chorus, inviting audiences to join in and sing choruses in the Royal Albert Hall and at Last Night events across the UK.

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa will be performing with the winner of the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio 2 Kiri Prize at the Proms in the Park in Hyde Park, while soprano Renée Fleming leads festivities in the Royal Albert Hall.

There are plenty of other opportunities for audiences to join in the singing too (see Proms Plus).

...And organs

Two late-afternoon solo organ recitals pick up other season strands: Wayne Marshall plays arrangements of Wagner's operatic music (1 August) and David Briggs gives an all-JS Bach programme as part of Bach Day (14 August).