Curtis Opera Theatre
Visionary productions and extraordinary musicianship.
The promising young artists of Curtis Opera Theatre collaborate with renowned conductors, directors, and designers to present fresh and passionate performances from across the operatic repertoire. Through visionary productions and extraordinary musicianship, they engage audiences with dynamic interpretations. Curtis’ voice and opera students feature prominently throughout the season, gaining formative performance experience to fuel their careers with top opera companies across the United States and Europe, including La Scala, Covent Garden, the Vienna Staatsoper, Houston Grand Opera, San Francisco Opera, and the Metropolitan Opera.
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2026/27
Susannah
November 19 & 21, 2026 | Mainstage Theater, Philadelphia Film Center
Written at the height of 1950s McCarthyism, the work follows a young woman unjustly persecuted by her Evangelical community in rural Tennessee. Praised for its distinctly American voice, Floyd’s score blends folk-inspired melodies and traditional hymns with operatic lyricism, creating a sound world rooted in the American South.
Orlando Paladino
February 18 & 20, 2027 | Mainstage Theater, Philadelphia Film Center
Romance and madness collide in Haydn’s heroic comedy Orlando Paladino. Inspired by Ariosto’s 16th-century epic poem, the opera follows princess Angelica and her beloved Medoro as they flee the jealous knight Orlando, whose unrequited love drives him toward delirious obsession.
Pelléas et Mélisande
April 30 & May 2, 2027 | Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center
Debussy’s modernist masterpiece traces a shadowy, dream-like love triangle through glances, silences, and hidden desires. A landmark of musical symbolism, Pelléas et Mélisande continues to mesmerize audiences over a century later.
2025/26
L'Orfeo
November 14 & 16, 2025 | Mainstage Theater, Philadelphia Film Center
Curtis Opera Theatre presents L’Orfeo, Monteverdi’s groundbreaking masterpiece that reshaped opera. Renowned conductor David Stern leads the cast of rising opera stars in acclaimed director and playwright John Matsumoto Giampietro’s production. Premiered in 1607, L’Orfeo merges Renaissance polyphony with Baroque drama—a stunning musical experience that places raw human emotions at its core.
La Passion de Simone
February 26 & 28, 2026 | Mainstage Theater, Philadelphia Film Center
Experience a mesmerizing meditation on faith, sacrifice, and resistance by Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho in a “Musical Journey in 15 Stations.” Directed by Marcus Shields and conducted by Marc Lowenstein, this opera-oratorio explores the life and writings of the radical French philosopher and activist Simone Weil through a stunning fusion of music, poetry, and theater.
A Midsummer Night's Dream
April 30 & May 2, 2026 | Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center
Magic and mischief intertwine in Benjamin Britten’s enchanting adaptation of William Shakespeare’s romantic comedy. Critically acclaimed director Sarah Ina Meyers and dynamic international conductor Vinay Parameswaran lead a dazzling cast of young opera stars in this spellbinding production where feuding fairies meddle with mortals, hearts are led astray, and the surreal world of dreams blurs the edges of reality.
Special Thanks
The Curtis Opera Theatre is generously supported by the Ernestine Bacon Cairns Trust, the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, and the Wyncote Foundation.
Curtis Opera Theatre is a proud member of Opera America.
Curtis received funding from Pennsylvania Creative Industries, powered by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Endowment for the Arts.