Three Tenors at Royal Opera

The Three Tenors, Pavarotti, Domingo and Carreras, will all appear in the Royal Opera's next season which begins in September, writes David Lister.

Carreras and Domingo will alternate in Verdi's Stiffelio while Pavarotti will appear in Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera.

The high-profile season, announced yesterday, also includes a Verdi festival, the only new production of Wagner's Ring Cycle to be mounted by a British opera company in the Nineties, and what is thought to be the first performance of a Gilbert and Sullivan at Covent Garden. The season also includes work by Purcell and Britten with visits from Opera North and Welsh National Opera. It is the latter who will be performing Gilbert and Sullivan's The Yeoman of the Guard.

The Verdi festival - Britain's first dedicated to the composer - runs from 12 June to 22 July next year and is the first of a series expected to last until 2001. The season opens on 12 September with Puccini's Turandot.

Average ticket prices have risen by 2.4 per cent and average prices will be pounds 65.