Vienna State Opera Unveils 2026/27 Season, Featuring Six Opera Premieres, Two Ballet Premieres & More

The Wiener Staatsoper has announced its 2026/27 season, which director Bogdan Roščić presented to the public during a matinee in the main house on Sunday, April 12 at 11:00 AM, broadcast live on ORF III, play.wiener-staatsoper.at, and the company's YouTube channel.

The mainstage season comprises six opera premieres, two ballet premieres, eight opera revivals and one ballet revival, a ballet gala, a world premiere children's opera, and 35 additional works in the opera and ballet repertoire. The company's second venue, NEST (Neue Staatsoper im Künstlerhaus), will offer five premieres aimed at children, young people, and families, including a ballet world premiere and — for the first time — a production for children ages 4 and up (Karussell). Full NEST programming will be detailed in early June.

Opera Premieres

The season opens October 3, 2026 with a double bill of Zemlinsky's Eine florentinische Tragödie and Bartók's Herzog Blaubarts Burg, conducted by Alain Altinoglu and directed by Vasily Barkhatov, starring Asmik Grigorian, Florian Boesch, and Christopher Maltman.

Barrie Kosky directs a new Ariadne auf Naxos on November 22, 2026, led by Franz Welser-Möst, with Golda Schultz, Daniel Behle, Kate Lindsey, Michael Nagy, and Serena Sáenz.

Lydia Steier stages Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust on December 17, 2026, conducted by Bertrand de Billy and featuring John Osborn, Eve-Maud Hubeaux, and Christian Van Horn.

Nikolaus Habjan directs Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera on February 21, 2027, with Michele Mariotti conducting a cast led by Freddie De Tommaso, Luca Salsi, Marina Rebeka, and Marie-Nicole Lemieux.

Evgeny Titov stages Tchaikovsky's Pique Dame on March 15, 2027, conducted by Alexander Soddy, with Ivan Gyngazov, Boris Pinkhasovich, Andrey Zhilikhovsky, Elena Stikhina, and Violeta Urmana.

The opera premieres close with Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi on June 11, 2027, directed by Tatjana Gürbaca and conducted by Gianluca Capuano, starring Lisette Oropesa and Emily D'Angelo.

A children's opera world premiere, Geheimmission Zauberflöte (Mozart/Gerald Resch), conceived and directed by Nina Blum, bows October 10, 2026.

Ballet Premieres

John Neumeier's Nijinsky receives its Vienna premiere on October 20, 2026, with Nathan Brock conducting music by Chopin, Rimsky-Korsakov, Shostakovich, and Schumann. Wayne McGregor's Woolf Works, set to music by Max Richter and originally commissioned by The Royal Ballet, arrives April 20, 2027, conducted by Paul Connelly. The season closes with a Ballet Gala dedicated to Jerome Robbins on June 28, 2027, featuring choreography by Robbins and Justin Peck, conducted by Fayçal Karoui.

NEST Premieres

The NEST lineup includes Karussell after Offenbach (September 4, 2026, dir. Anna Bernreiter); Grigori Frid's Das Tagebuch der Anne Frank (October 16, 2026, dir. David Bösch); Der kleine Prinz set to Debussy (November 22, 2026, choreography by Adi Hanan); Migrantenexpress (February 12, 2027); and Die kleine Hexe by Franz Wittenbrink (April 10, 2027, dir. Christiane Lutz).

Revivals

Opera revivals include Adriana Lecouvreur (September 5, 2026) with Ermonela Jaho, Elīna Garanča, and Luciano Ganci; Monteverdi's L'Orfeo (October 25, 2026) with Rolando Villazón; La Fille du Régiment (November 1, 2026) with Erin Morley and Xabier Anduaga; Don Carlos (January 17, 2027) with Michael Spyres, Nicole Car, and Étienne Dupuis; Die tote Stadt (April 25, 2027) with Klaus Florian Vogt and Vida Miknevičiūtė; Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (May 6, 2027) with Michael Volle; Lulu (May 17, 2027) conducted by Simone Young; and Andrea Chénier (June 18, 2027) with Piotr Beczała and Sondra Radvanovsky. John Cranko's Onegin returns on November 29, 2026.

Opera Air and Additional Events

The season kicks off with the free Opera Air concert in the Burggarten on September 6, 2026, with Piotr Beczała, Juan Diego Flórez, Asmik Grigorian, and Ludovic Tézier performing with the Vienna State Opera Orchestra and Chorus under Axel Kober. ORF III and ARTE will broadcast live.

Solo recitals throughout the season feature Xabier Anduaga, Piotr Beczała & Luca Salsi, Juan Diego Flórez, Günther Groissböck & Malcolm Martineau, Jonas Kaufmann & Helmut Deutsch, Simon Keenlyside, and Georg Nigl with Nicholas Ofczarek and Olga Pashchenko. The Vienna Opera Ball takes place February 4, 2027, followed by two children's performances of Die Zauberflöte in the ballroom set on February 5.

Tickets

Subscriptions are available now, with cycles on sale from April 13, 2026 at 10:00 AM. Single tickets for September and October mainstage performances go on sale April 27, 2026 at 10:00 AM, along with tickets for the rest of the mainstage season and the full NEST season.