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...

Having performed Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the London Mozart Players and Stephen Kovacevich in June, Alastair travels to the US in September 2008 for performances of the same piece with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra in San Francisco and at New York's Carnegie Hall.

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

LA SCALA DEBUT - In April 2009, Alastair Miles will make his debut at La Scala, Milan, singing Lord Sydney in Rossini's II Viaggio a Reims. Concurrently, he will sing the role of Melisso in Handel's Alcina.

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: