April 03, 2025
Provided image/Clärchen & Matthias Baus
Opera Philadelphia will kick off its 2025-2026 season with a production of Rossini's 'Il viaggio a Reims' set in an art museum. The company is offering audiences another chance to buy $11 tickets.
Opera Philadelphia is ringing in its 50th season with reimagined classics, new works and a returning $11 ticket program.
The company announced five productions Thursday, which will be staged between fall 2025 and spring 2026. Theatergoers can buy $11 tickets to any seat at any of these shows starting May 15. When Opera Philadelphia offered the same discount last year, its entire season sold out in less than two weeks.
A new feature this year is the Opera Pass, which gives audiences early access to the discount. The passes are available now for $11 a month or $111 a year; holders can join an exclusive presale for the Pick Your Price program Thursday, May 1, through Wednesday, May 14.
The first production on the schedule is "Il viaggio a Reims," an Italian opera by classic composer Gioachino Rossini. He set the show during the 1825 coronation of French King Charles X, but this modern update unfolds in a present-day art museum. As the curator prepares for a major exhibit opening, some of the paintings come to life and step out of their frames. This production, originally mounted by the Dutch National Opera, will make its Philadelphia premiere at the Academy of Music. It runs Sept. 19, 21, 26 and 28.
Opera Philadelphia will also stage a reimagining of the Antonio Vivaldi concerti "The Four Seasons." The production, which features added arias and choreography, follows a group of artists whose retreat is struck by extreme weather. Bubbles made from dish soap emulate the rain, snow and smoke. "The Seasons" will play the Kimmel Center's Perelman Theater on Dec. 19, 20 and 21.
The new year brings a world premiere from "A Strange Loop" playwright Michael R. Jackson. The Tony and Pulitzer Prize winner will mount his first opera at the Academy of Music. "Complications in Sue" splits its heroine's life into 10 decades, each scored by a different composer. Cabaret star Justin Vivian Bond will play the lead role. They take the stage Feb. 4, 5, 6 and 8, 2026.
Later productions include "Sleepers Awake," a spin on "Sleeping Beauty" that finds the princess furious someone disturbed her slumber, and "The Black Clown," an adaptation of the Langston Hughes poem of the same name. "Sleepers Awake" is an original commission for Opera Philadelphia that will run April 22, 24 and 26, 2026, at the Academy of Music. "The Black Clown" was previously staged in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and New York. It makes its Philly premiere May 14, 15, 16 and 17, 2026, at the Miller Theater.
Representatives for Opera Philadelphia expect the new season to sell out by mid-May. Subscription packages go on sale Thursday at 10 a.m.
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