Former Blur frontman Damon Albarn will return to Manchester International Festival with a new project, he revealed recently on BBC Radio 4's Front Row.
Speaking to regular programme presenter John Wilson, Albarn said, "I'm working on a very interesting opera-based thing based on a very famous children's book, but I won't say which one."
When Wilson asked whether this was another MIF commission, Albarn replied, "it is, yes." He refused to be drawn on the subject of the piece as it would "immediately become amplified and distorted".
Albarn has been associated with MIF since it began. His Chinese opera Monkey: Journey to the West, co-created with Chen Shi-Zheng and Gorillaz animator Jamie Hewlett, was one of the headline events of the first MIF in 2007.
He returned in 2011 with Dr Dee, subtitled "An English Opera", in collaboration with Rufus Norris, who will take over as artistic director of the National Theatre next year.
There has not yet been any indication of whether this show will be part of the next MIF, a biennial event, in July 2015, but he has taken part in every other festival in the past, implying that, using purely mathematical reasoning, he would be due to make a contribution in 2015.
MIF will not confirm any details about the programme for MIF15 at the moment.