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The Observer's critics pick the season's highlights, from the Misanthrope to Johnny Marr, Lulu to Lichtenstein, H7steria to Hitchcock. What are you most looking forward to? Add your comments below and download a pdf of the calendar here

December | January | FebruaryDecember

1 Film The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (3D)

Well, not so very unexpected. Every move has been tracked by fanboys, from the casting of Martin Freeman as Bilbo and Benedict Cumberbatch as the dragon Smaug to the return of the king, Peter Jackson, to take over directing from Guillermo del Toro. But Middle-earth (or, as it's sometimes known, New Zealand) is back for the next three Christmases.

3 Pop Scott Walker

The avant-garde Walker Brother returns with his first album since 2006's The Drift. Not for the faint-hearted, Bish Bosch finds the former romantic hero deep in dystopian territory, at once sonorous and rigorous.

3 Classical H7steria

World premiere of...

Mattila/Álvarez/Gagnidze/Metropolitan Opera Chorus and Orchestra/Colaneri

(Virgin Classics)

Karita Mattila has announced she is dropping Tosca from her repertoire, so those who were hoping to hear her in the role in London next year will have to make do with this performance from the New York Met, filmed during the opening run of Luc Bondy's controversial 2009 production. There's evidence – forced chest tones, unsteadiness when singing softly, lunges at high notes – that Mattila's move into dramatic soprano territory was a mistake from which she is wisely trying to extricate herself. But her extraordinary sense of theatre makes her compelling to watch, whether she's sexually teasing Marcelo Álvarez's fervent Cavaradossi in church, or attacking George Gagnidze's perverted Scarpia with a violence that borders on the pathological. Bondy keeps Puccini's specified period (1800), but also views the work as prophetic of 20th and 21st-century political violence. His...

Tickets for the fourth season of The Met: Live in HD, the Metropolitan Opera's popular, award-winning series of live transmissions in movie theaters around the world, are now on sale to the general public in the U.S. The 2009-10 season, featuring nine live opera transmissions, kicks off on Saturday, October 10 at 1:00 p.m. Et with a new production of Puccini's Tosca starring Karita Mattila.

Everyone talks about Tosca, a thriller, an edge-of-your-seat, over the top classic, with glorious Puccini music as its underpinning. All true. The story, which had its origins in a play with Sarah Bernhardt tells of a passionate singer involved in a populist rebellion against Italian royals who is unable to save her lover. Costume Designer Milena Canonero. Photos Metropolitan Opera But in this new production which is this year's opening night at the Metropolitan Opera, there is one very special element that fans can be especially excited about: the costume designer is the multi-Oscared Milena Canonero. The production boasts lots of star wattage: Karita Mattila, the Finnish diva as Tosca and Luc Bondy, one of Europe's most innovative directors with James Levine at the podium. But Canonero alone would be reason enough for those who aren't familiar...

Tickets for the fourth season of The Met: Live in HD, the Metropolitan Opera's popular, award-winning series of live transmissions in movie theaters around the world, are now on sale to the general public in the U.S. The 2009-10 season, featuring nine live opera transmissions, kicks off on Saturday, October 10 at 1:00 p.m. Et with a new production of Puccini's Tosca starring Karita Mattila.

Tchaikovsky's romantic masterpiece Eugene Onegin, based on the Pushkin poem, returns to the Met on Friday, January 30, with a superb international cast. American baritone Thomas Hampson returns to the role of Onegin, the haughty aristocrat who acknowledges love too late, opposite the Finnish soprano Karita Mattila making her Met role debut as Tatiana, who grows from a love-struck young girl to an aristocratic woman. Russian mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Semenchuk is her sister, Olga; Polish tenor Piotr Beczala is Lenski, Onegin's doomed friend; and Russian bass Sergei Aleksashkin is Gremin, the elderly prince who marries Tatiana. Aleksashkin will sing the first two performances and American bass James Morris, taking on the role for the first time at the Met, does the remainder of the run. Czech maestro Jiř? Bĕlohl?vek conducts all performances, through February 21. The production is by Robert Carsen, sets and costumes are by Michael Levine, Jean Kalman is the lighting designer,...