Opera watch.(Calendar)

1. THE BOLSHOI THEATER season opens this month, with the Marfa of LARISSA DIADKOVA heading the cast of Khovanshchina (Sept. 4). New stagings on the Bolshoi's 2003-04 calendar are Verdi's Macbeth, absent from the Bolshoi stage for 150 years, directed and designed by EIMUNTAS NEKROSIUS (opening Oct. 8); ROBERT STURUA's production of Tchaikovsky's Mazeppa (Jan. 28, 2004); Prokofiev's The Fiery Angel staged by FRANCESCA ZAMBELLO (April 22); and PETER KONWITSCHNY's production of Der Fliegende Hollander, the first Bolshoi mounting of a Wagner opera in twenty-five years (June 20).

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2. Finnish baritone TOMMI HAKALA was the victor in the June 29 finals of the eleventh biannual BBC SINGER OF THE WORLD competition, broadcast live by BBC television and radio from St. David's Hall in Cardiff, Wales. Hakala, a member of the Leipzig Opera, was awarded a 10,000 [pounds sterling] prize and engagements with the BBC and Welsh National Opera. The competition's Song Prize went to Irish soprano AILISH TYNAN; Chilean soprano ANGELA MARAMBIO received the Audience Prize.

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3. NANCY GUSTAFSON wears the tsarina's kokoshnik in the world premiere of Deborah Drattell's NICHOLAS AND ALEXANDRA at Los Angeles Opera (Sept. 14-26), then moves on to Munich for a concert of operetta arias (Oct. 10). Opera dates for the soprano in 2004 include Lisa in The Queen of Spades and Blanche in Dialogues des Carmelites in Hamburg (March-April), Arabella at Covent Garden (June) and Jonny Spielt Auf at the ...