2026 - 2027 Season, Austin Opera
Austin Opera’s 2026-2027 Season
Ofrenda
World Premiere
Thursday, October 1, 2026
Friday, October 2, 2026
Saturday, October 3, 2026
Sunday, October 4, 2026
Sarah and Ernest Butler Performance Center
Developed over years of partnership with composer Jorge Sosa and librettist John de los Santos, this new work is a celebration of family, cultural memory, and Día de los Muertos traditions. Ofrenda will open the 2026–2027 season, representing a major milestone for the company—it is Austin Opera’s first commissioned work and the culmination of years of investment in developing new voices and stories that reflect Latinx communities, family, and tradition.
“The idea for Ofrenda came to me during COVID,” said composer Jorge Sosa. “I wanted to write a work that centered around healing and celebrated essential workers. I was thinking about the curanderas (traditional healers) in México and the mysticism that surrounds them. John de los Santos has been an incredible creative partner in developing the idiosyncrasies of the characters and the bilingual libretto. The opera reads like a hospital procedural show, mixed with a healthy dose of magical realism and high drama. The main character is Macaria (soprano Stephanie Sanchez), a custodian at a hospital who has an encounter with death, La Señora (mezzo-soprano Victoria Vargas). Moved by Macaria’s kindness, Señora sheds a tear of life into Macaria’s water bottle, giving her the power to heal anyone. But the price for such power will eventually catch up with her.”
“In Ofrenda, themes of remembrance, love, and healing are woven through a narrative that honors life’s enduring connections,” said Claudia Chapa, Austin Opera’s Associate Director of Artistic Operations and Curator of Hispanic & Latinx Programming. “The work resonates deeply in Austin, where more than one-third of residents identify as Hispanic or Latinx, and where Austin Opera has cultivated long-term relationships with the community through programs such as Concerts at the Consulate and the Residency for Latinx Creatives. As communities seek shared experiences that foster understanding and connection, Ofrenda offers a poignant reflection on the ties that bind families and cultures across generations.”
In 2023, Ofrenda was selected by Austin Opera to receive financial and workshop support through its Residency for Latinx Creatives, a program funded by the Butler Fund for Spanish Programming, which focuses on nurturing new works by Latinx artists. During the residency, Austin Opera’s artistic and administrative staff worked closely with Sosa and de los Santos. The team met regularly to provide feedback on libretto development and musical composition. A duet from the work premiered in November 2025 during Austin Opera’s Celebrate Opera! concert, introducing audiences to the new piece. In June 2026, a weeklong workshop will be held in Austin. Austin Opera will premiere the chamber version of the opera; however, a full orchestration is also being composed. Ofrenda is made possible by the Butler Fund for Spanish Programming and support from OPERA America.
As Austin Opera’s new home for performance, rehearsal, and creative development, the Butler Performance Center is designed to serve as a dynamic cultural hub for Austin’s southeast community. The venue’s flexible 185-seat configuration offers an intimate and immersive setting—ideal for premiering a contemporary work like Ofrenda that emphasizes storytelling, emotional connection, and audience engagement. The venue’s size and location also make it ideal for reaching new and returning audiences from Austin’s culturally diverse southeast neighborhoods.
Opera Unleashed: Thaïs
Friday, November 13, 2026, at 7:30 pm
Sunday, November 15, 2026, at 2:00 pm
Long Center for the Performing Arts
In celebration of Timothy Myers’ 2023 appointment as the Sarah and Ernest Butler Music Director, Austin Opera launched Opera Unleashed: Epic Masterpieces with Timothy Myers, a series of company premieres featuring some of the most historically significant works composed for the operatic voice. November brings Jules Massenet's tale of sensuality and spirituality, which centers around a seductive priestess and a holy man. Premiered in 1894 at the Paris Opera, it is one of the most seductive and introspective operas ever to grace the stage.
The titular Thaïs is sung by soprano Nicole Heaston in the role of an Egyptian courtesan and priestess of Venus whom the Christian monk Athanaël (baritone Troy Cook) tries to convert to the new faith. But as she finds her salvation in Christ, he becomes obsessed with her sexually and falls to lust.
Myers, Heaston, and Cook teamed up to great acclaim in the production’s 2025 premiere at Spoleto Festival. “What powers this production is the mesmerizing Heaston, whose stunning soprano and magnetic stage presence makes it palpably clear why men of all stripes are fixated,” said the Charleston City Paper. “In the third act, Cook’s rich baritone rose also to poignancy as he channeled the soul-searching of Athanaël.”
Crystal Manich, who earned raves for her 2026 Austin Opera staging of Fiddler on the Roof, returns to direct Thaïs, alongside lighting designer Tláloc López-Watterman, costume designer Brandon McDonald, projection designer Greg Emetaz, and movement designer Michael Pappalardo.
Fellow Travelers
Saturday, February 6, 2027, at 7:30 pm
Sunday, February 7, 2027, at 2:00 pm
Called “a deeply human love story” by the Chicago Tribune, Fellow Travelers portrays the experiences of government employees who were subject to humiliating investigations because of their sexuality. In 1953, the young, idealistic Timothy Laughlin arrives in Washington, DC, eager to join the fight against Communism. A chance encounter with Hawkins Fuller, a State Department official, results in Tim’s first job and his first romantic relationship with a man. As Tim struggles to reconcile his newfound love with his beliefs, the baleful force of McCarthyism threatens to cost Hawkins his job and his freedom.
Austin Opera’s performances in February 2027 kick off the second year of a national tour that will bring this story to multiple cities across the US in 2026 and 2027, one of the largest consortium projects ever attempted in the US opera industry. The tour is being co-produced by the Up Until Now Collective. In 2026, the tour begins with Seattle Opera (February 21-March 1), Portland Opera (March 7–15), San Diego Opera (July 10–12) and New York’s Glimmerglass Festival (July 18–Aug. 16).
“At a time when living ‘in the closet’ is becoming increasingly rare, it seems important to put characters like Tim and Hawk on stage,” said composer Gregory Spears and librettist Greg Pierce. “Not just as historical victims struggling against homophobia, but also as ordinary people fighting through life in an era where a public expression of love could threaten to destroy one’s world. Our hope is that the nuanced machinery of opera might play some small part in reminding us of this history, while also preserving onstage the dangerous counterpoint that so often defined the gay experience in the mid-20th century.”
“As we prepare to celebrate the opera’s tenth anniversary, I have been reflecting on my values as an artist, especially as a Queer artist making work during these uncertain times,” says stage director Kevin Newbury, who also directed the premiere of Fellow Travelers at Cincinnati Opera in 2016. “I believe that we stand on the shoulders of the people who came before us and who fought so hard and sacrificed so much for us to have the rights we have today. I believe in the power of art to build community. And I believe in the power of a good love story. And Fellow Travelers is, first and foremost, a good love story.”
To explore the opera’s broader impact, the Fellow Travelers tour consortium is partnering with the American LGBTQ+ Museum on the Lavender Names Project, a nationwide, grassroots archival research and community outreach initiative that will share the stories of LGBTQ+ community members.
Fellow Travelers is based on Thomas Mallon’s best-selling 2007 novel. In 2023, CBS/Paramount premiered the Emmy-nominated mini-series adaptation of the novel starring Matt Bomer and Jonathan Bailey.
Verdi’s La traviata
Sunday, April 18, 2027, at 2:00 pm
Thursday, April 22, 2027, at 7:30 pm
Saturday, April 24, 2027, at 7:30 pm
Austin Opera and Opera San Antonio team up once again following the successful and groundbreaking 2025 co-production of Puccini’s poignant Madame Butterfly. This year’s co-production of La traviata is made possible with support from The Dr. M. Lee Pearce Foundation.
Featuring Verdi’s most timeless and lyrical score, La traviata has continued to captivate audiences for more than 150 years. Within the glamorous, clamorous social whirl of sophisticated Paris, the courtesan Violetta lives purely for pleasure but longs for true love. She finds the right man in Alfredo, but their happiness is cut short: at his father’s insistence, Violetta leaves Alfredo for the sake of his family. Her spirit broken, her health shattered, Violetta now lives only with the hope that Alfredo will return to her.
Praised by Opera News for her "gleaming column of sound" and "individual timbre," American soprano Sara Gartland is garnering critical acclaim for her powerful portrayals of some of opera's leading lyric heroines, including La traviata’s Violetta. Having impressed Austin audiences as Pinkerton in 2025 performances of Madame Butterfly, lyric tenor Kameron Lopreore returns as Alfredo. Called “a most impressive Germont” by Opera News, Korean baritone Joo Won Kang makes his Austin Opera debut as Alfredo’s disapproving but noble father.
Conducted by Sarah and Ernest Butler Music Director Timothy Myers and directed by E. Loren Meeker, Opera San Antonio’s General Director, this vibrant production from Lyric Opera of Chicago features set and costume design by Desmond Heeley.
