Opera Season Highlights 2026-27
WORLD PREMIERES
Sir John Tavener’s long-awaited final opera receives its world premiere at Grange Park Opera. Conceived as a “mystic pantomime,” the work draws on sacred Sanskrit texts—including the Bhagavad Gita and Bhagavata Purana—to trace the life of the Hindu deity Krishna through a sequence of ritualized tableaux that blend music, dance, and spiritual narrative. Under the baton of Mark Shanahan and directed by David Pountney, with choreography by Shobana Jeyasingh and set design by Rachana Jadhav, the production features an international cast including Sara Fulgoni, Elgan Llŷr Thomas, Brett Polegato, and Julia Sitkovetsky. Running 4 June – 2 July 2026, the production will be followed by its American premiere at Houston Grand Opera.
The Galloping Cure, Missy Mazzoli / Royce Vavrek (after Karen Russell and Franz Kafka)
In their latest opera, Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek turn their long-standing creative partnership toward the opioid crisis, filtering it through a surreal, darkly allegorical lens and drawing on the writings of Karen Russell and Franz Kafka. Described by director Tom Morris as “a lurid tale of the greed surrounding the tragedy of the opioid crisis,” in which a mysterious figure offers a miraculous cure for pain—at devastating cost. Premiering at the Edinburgh International Festival, 9–12 August 2026, this Opera Ventures production reunites Scottish Opera with Mazzoli, Vavrek, and Morris following their previous collaboration, Breaking the Waves. Conducted by Stuart Stratford with the Orchestra of Scottish Opera, the score combines Mazzoli’s lyrical writing with driving, club-influenced rhythmic energy. The cast is led by Daniela Mack, Justin Austin, and Susan Bullock. A major international co-production and co-commission between Opera Ventures, Scottish Opera, NorrlandsOperan AB, the Canadian Opera Company, San Francisco Opera, and State Opera of South Australia, the work is positioned for a substantial international life beyond its premiere, offering companies a visually distinctive and theatrically urgent addition to the contemporary repertoire.
Lincoln in the Bardo, Missy Mazzoli / Royce Vavrek (after Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders)
Marking the first mainstage opera by a woman to be commissioned and premiered solely by The Metropolitan Opera, Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek adapt George Saunders’ Booker Prize–winning novel with performances running 19 October – 14 November 2026. The opera depicts the aftermath of Willie Lincoln’s death, set in a graveyard populated by spirits who observe and respond to Abraham Lincoln’s grief, structured around the novel’s ensemble narration and shifting perspectives. The production is conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Steven Osgood, directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz, and features Peter Mattei, Christine Goerke, Janai Brugger, Stephanie Blythe, Anthony Roth Costanzo, and Ryan McKinny. The work is also being developed beyond the operatic stage, with a film adaptation reported to be in development with Tom Hanks as Abraham Lincoln.
Der geheime Garten (The Secret Garden), Jonathan Dove / Peter Lund (after The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett)
Jonathan Dove and librettist Peter Lund adapt Frances Hodgson Burnett’s novel The Secret Garden for a new opera at Theater Regensburg, running 5 December 2026 – 9 May 2027. The production continues the theatre’s focus on works for younger audiences, building on its past presentation of Dove’s The Adventures of Pinocchio and extending its “Musical Theatre for Families” series with a work written specifically for the company. The opera follows Mary Lennox, a young girl sent to live in a remote Yorkshire estate, where she discovers a neglected garden that becomes the catalyst for emotional and familial renewal. The production is conducted by Tom Woods and directed by Ronny Scholz, bringing together an ensemble cast in a staging that develops the work’s themes of healing, isolation, and transformation through nature and imagination.
Red Fox, Du Yun / Royce Vavrek
Red Fox receives its world premiere at the Dutch National Opera, running 13–28 March 2027. The production is conducted by Pierre Bleuse and with stage direction by Barrie Kosky. The cast features Annette Dasch, Evelyn Herlitzius, Bo Skovhus, Alexander de Jong, Ya-Chung Huang, and soprano Qian Yi (a specialist in Kunqu) with countertenor John Holiday appearing as the fox. The opera explores three interconnected relationships shaped by the loss of memory and the ways love persists even as shared histories begin to fade. A mystical fox weaves the narratives together, blurring the boundaries between myth and reality. Following their new production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning opera Angel’s Bone, Du Yun and Vavrek reunite with Kosky on a new piece influenced by pop, Chinese folk music, and Western classical traditions.
Empire of Wild, Ian Cusson / Cherie Dimaline (after her novel Empire of Wild)
Ian Cusson and Cherie Dimaline adapt Dimaline’s novel Empire of Wild for the stage in a world premiere at the Canadian Opera Company, running 1–21 May 2027. Conducted by Johannes Debus and directed by Yvette Nolan, the opera features Elisabeth St-Gelais and Elliot Madore in the principal roles. The work follows Joan, a Métis woman searching for her missing husband, who she believes has been drawn into a religious revival led by a charismatic preacher. Rooted in Métis storytelling traditions and drawing on the legend of the Rougarou, the opera explores themes of identity, belief, and resilience within a contemporary operatic framework.
PREMIERE RECORDINGS
The First Child, Donnacha Dennehy / Enda Walsh
The last of a trio of operas by Donnacha Dennehy with acclaimed Irish playwright Enda Walsh, The First Child is a haunting exploration of the haze of new parenthood and the long-term effects of childhood bullying. Sara Keating of The Irish Times writes that “[i]n The First Child, the mundane is made macabre, the ordinary rendered aberrant, by a chilling collision of circumstance and time.” Throughout the opera, Walsh’s recurrent triptychs of simultaneously played scenes are supported by the fierce rhythmic energy, carefully crafted microtonal harmonies, and gorgeously layered children’s choir of Dennehy’s score. The First Child premiered in 2021 as a commission by Irish National Opera and Landmark Productions, and is now available with the release of the premiere recording on Signum Classics.
Florencia en el Amazonas, Daniel Catán / Marcela Fuentes-Berain
Daniel Catán’s Florencia en el Amazonas, with a libretto by Marcela Fuentes-Berain, is released in a new recording by the Houston Grand Opera on 1 May 2026. Conducted by Patrick Summers, the recording captures the company’s 2019 production and documents one of the most widely performed Spanish-language operas of the late 20th century. Set aboard a riverboat traveling the Amazon, the work follows the opera singer Florencia Grimaldi as she searches for her lost lover, blending elements of magical realism with a richly lyrical score. The album release is preceded by the single “¿Dónde estás, Cristóbal?”, now available, offering an early preview of the full recording.
Explore our companion feature, Operas in Concert, highlighting stage works ideal for concert performance:
Art’s Afterlives | Feminist Essays | Casting Off Chains: Abolition and the Civil War | The Americas: Latine Culture and History | East Asian Love Stories | Positively Medieval: Stories of the Middle Ages and Renaissance | Classics of English Fiction | The 19th Century: Great Wars and Colonial Sorrows | Upheavals of the 20th Century | The Weight of Motherhood