Alastair is delighted to announce that he has been engaged to sing his first major Wagnerian role, namely, Veit Pogner, in Glyndebourne's new production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg scheduled for the 2011 season. It will be conducted by Vladimir Jurowski and directed by David McVicar.

Says Alastair, " I've somehow managed to avoid Wagner up to now, but I'm very excited finally to be breaking my Wagner 'duck' with this project which takes me back to Glyndebourne where I started my career". His last Glyndebourne appearance was as Fiesco in Verdi's Simon Boccanegra in 1998.

Other Wagner roles Alastair is currently preparing include King Marke in Tristan und Isolde, and he doesn't altogether discount the possibility of a Wotan sometime in the future...

2010 began with Alastair in Vienna for New Year concerts of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. Next, north to Stockholm, Sweden to sing the devil roles in Schumann's Faustszenen with the Swedish Radio Orchestra under Daniel Harding.

Performances of Narbal in Berlioz's epic Les Troyens follow in April, at the Netherlands Opera, conducted by John Nelson, in a revival of Pierre Audi's 2003 production.

From Amsterdam Alastair hot-foots it to Munich for a new staging of Johann Simon Mayr's neglected masterpiece Medea in Corinto, produced by Hans Neuenfels and conducted by felow Cambridge resident Ivor Bolton.

September brings Alastair home to the Royal Opera House for another rediscovered rarity, Agostino Steffani's Niobe, in a production first seen at the 2007 Schwetzingen Festival

Looking back at 2009, April saw Alastair making his debut at La Scala, Milan, singing Lord Sydney in Rossini's II Viaggio a Reims. Concurrently, he sang the role of Melisso in Handel's Alcina. In May, Alastair returned to Opera North for performances of Don Carlo (Philip II) which was recorded by Chandos. Following his 2007 success with the Netherlands Opera in Lucia di Lammermoor (Raimondo), he returned to Amsterdam in 2009 for La Juive (Cardinal Brogni).

In 2008, Alastair Miles had resumed his 'devilish' ways (he had appeared in Berlioz's Faust for Welsh National Opera) singing the role of Nick Shadow in The Rake's Progress at the Theater an der Wien, in a new production conducted by Nikolaus Hamoncourt.

Alastair has recently made a number of recordings for the LSO Live label, including Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius and Handel's Messiah, both with Sir Colin Davis.

As well as the anticipated release of recent recordings of La Forza del Destino (TDK) and Faustszenen (Concertgebouw own label), Alastair Miles will record the role of Mustafa (L'Italiana in Algeria) for the Chandos Opera in English series.

He features on Volume 4 of Hyperion's Complete Songs of Richard Strauss , due for release in February 2009.

Just released for Opera Rara is La Cour de Célimène by Ambroise Thomas in which he sings the role of Le Commandeur.

A recent recording of Verdi's Nabucco on the Chandos label in which he sings the role of Zaccariah has won him the highest praise. The Gramophone said: