AIDA, SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER, and More Set For Opera Philadelphia 2026-2027 Season

Opera Philadelphia's 2026-2027 Season has been revealed. It is the second curated by General Director and President Anthony Roth Costanzo. There will be five new productions slated for the upcoming season across three Philadelphia venues.

“I want Opera Philadelphia's world of opera to feel like your world, no matter who you are. Whether the music is old or new, whether you're a first-timer or an aficionado, you can come to any (or preferably all) of these five productions and have that uncanny feeling of having lived some part of the story you see on stage in front of you,” Costanzo said of the 2026-2027 Season. “The extraordinary artists who come to play in our sandbox are cooking up a feast of beauty, and we are excited to serve it to you on a silver platter for less than the cost of a cheesesteak. Through interdisciplinary collaborations, new perspectives, and a love of the craft, this company is here to show you that opera is as much a part of our future as it is a part of our past.”

Mitridate, re di Ponto

The season will launch in September with Costanzo on stage alongside some of the great operatic stars of today, celebrated tenor Lawrence Brownlee and radiant soprano Lauren Snouffer, in the company premiere of Mitridate, re di Ponto, an early career triumph for composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who completed the opera when he was just 14 years old.

Suddenly Last Summer

In her first opera, Courtney Bryan, an Opera Philadelphia Composer in Residence from 2022-2024, brings plaintive new life to Tennessee Williams's Suddenly Last Summer, about a family secret and a mother's desperate attempt to silence the truth. Gideon Lester and Tony-winning director Daniel Fish penned the opera's libretto, with Mikhaela Mahony reviving Fish's original direction for a cast led by soprano Mikaela Bennett. Nathan Koci serves as conductor and music supervisor. The opera comes to Opera Philadelphia directly after its world premiere in June 2026 at Bard Summerscape.

Let 'Em Eat Cake

February brings a timely revival of George and Ira Gershwins' most overlooked work, Let 'Em Eat Cake, a biting satire about an American President who refuses to accept a reelection loss and stages a fascist coup and a redesign of the White House. Visionary director Zack Winokur leads one of the first productions to be staged since the 1933 Broadway debut of the dystopian American farce, which features one of the Gershwin brothers' most complex and inventive scores.

Aida

In April, blazing director Kaneza Schaal leads a lush new production of Aida, marking the first performances of Verdi's masterpiece at the Academy of Music in more than two decades (since 2005). Powerhouse soprano Tiffany Townsend makes her role debut in the title role, alongside tenor Jonathan Burton (Radamès), bass-baritone Alfred Walker (Amonasro), and mezzo-soprano Aubrey Odle (Amneris)—all making their company debuts.

Sitcom

The season concludes in May 2027 with the World Premiere of Sitcom, an episodic opera by composer Luke Styles and librettist Alan McKendrick that co-opts the television sitcom format for the opera stage. Conceived as multiple 30-minute “episodes,” the opera takes the characters Max, Bettina, Joan and Vendetta on hugely transformative journeys, but just like on TV, each of them returns to their status quo for the beginning of the next episode.