Cate Blanchett to Narrate Beethoven's EGMONT With the LA Phil
Blanchett will portray Egmont in a new adaptation, created in collaboration with acclaimed playwright Jeremy O. Harris, featuring soprano Elena Villalón.
The LA Phil has revealed a major addition to its 2025/26 season at Walt Disney Concert Hall: Academy Award-winning actress Cate Blanchett will appear as narrator in four performances of Beethoven’s Egmont in February 2026 conducted by the LA Phil’s Music & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel. In a bold reimagining of the work, Blanchett will portray Egmont in a new adaptation, created in collaboration with acclaimed playwright Jeremy O. Harris, featuring soprano Elena Villalón.
Traditionally delivered by a male narrator, the role of Egmont has been reconceived for Blanchett as part of a powerful artistic vision that illuminates themes of resistance, freedom, and heroism.
This multidimensional program begins with the world premiere of Ricardo Lorenz’s Humboldt’s Nature, a dynamic work inspired by the South American expeditions of Alexander von Humboldt, the visionary philosopher and naturalist who was a contemporary of Beethoven. At the center of the evening, pianist Yunchan Lim—winner of the 2022 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and a rising global sensation—performs Schumann’s masterful Piano Concerto.
Program:
Dudamel Conducts Beethoven and Lorenz
February 12–15, 2026
Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles
Los Angeles Philharmonic
Gustavo Dudamel, conductor
Ricardo LORENZ — Humboldt’s Nature, World Premiere & LA Phil Commission
SCHUMANN — Piano Concerto
Yunchan Lim, piano
Intermission
BEETHOVEN — Incidental Music from Egmont
Adapted by Jeremy O. Harris
Cate Blanchett, narrator
Elena Villalón, soprano
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