Atlanta Opera’s 2026-27 season features major classics, a Pulitzer-winning opera, and new-works premieres

A season designed around established repertory and contemporary experimentation

The Atlanta Opera has announced programming for its 2026-27 season that combines three cornerstone titles of the international repertory with a Pulitzer Prize-winning work and two a cappella, theater-oriented projects presented under its New Opera Works programming. The company describes the lineup as part of an ongoing strategy to expand opera’s format and venues while maintaining large-scale productions in its main performance home.

Mainstage productions: Bizet, Wagner, Puccini—and a modern wartime story

The mainstage season opens with Silent Night, an opera by composer Kevin Puts and librettist Mark Campbell that dramatizes the 1914 Christmas truce during World War I. The work won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Music and has become one of the most frequently staged American operas of the last two decades. Performances will take place at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, with Iván López Reynoso conducting.

Bizet’s Carmen follows from Jan. 30 through Feb. 7, 2027. The cast is set to include Tunisian-Canadian mezzo-soprano Rihab Chaieb in the title role. The opera was last presented by the company in 2018 and again in 2020, returning as one of the season’s anchor works.

Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman is scheduled for March 13–21, 2027, marking the opera’s return to Atlanta after a 2017 staging. Bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green is set to make an Atlanta Opera debut in the title role. López Reynoso will conduct, with Tomer Zvulun directing.

The season’s final mainstage production is a new staging of Puccini’s Tosca, running May 1–9, 2027. Soprano Monica Conesa is scheduled to sing the title role, with López Reynoso again on the podium and Zvulun directing.

New Opera Works: a world premiere and a tribute rooted in American choral history

As part of the company’s New Opera Works Festival in June 2027, two productions are planned at Morehouse College’s Ray Charles Performing Arts Center. One is the world premiere of Rosenbaum and Li (Rose, Tree), developed from the winning entry of the 2025 96-Hour Opera Project and commissioned for expansion into a full chamber opera. The project’s premise centers on cross-cultural family ties and interracial relationships in the late 1960s.

The festival also includes Jubilee, described as a theatrical tribute to the Fisk Jubilee Singers. The work is by festival artistic adviser Tazewell Thompson and Dianne Adams McDowell and focuses on the ensemble’s post–Civil War origins and legacy.

Venues, staffing, and a new permanent home on the horizon

The company plans to continue presenting large productions at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre while placing smaller-format works in other Atlanta venues. Programming decisions are also unfolding alongside a major capital project: construction is slated to begin Feb. 23, 2026, on the Molly Blank Center for Opera and the Arts, the organization’s future headquarters and performance complex along the Atlanta Beltline. Current project materials describe two intimate performance spaces—each planned at about 200 seats—along with rehearsal, education, and administrative facilities, with substantial completion targeted for October 2027.

• Silent Night (Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre) — conducted by Iván López Reynoso
• Carmen (Jan. 30–Feb. 7, 2027) — featuring Rihab Chaieb
• The Flying Dutchman (March 13–21, 2027) — featuring Ryan Speedo Green
• Tosca (May 1–9, 2027) — new production starring Monica Conesa
• New Opera Works Festival (June 2027, Morehouse College) — world premiere and a cappella theatrical programming

The announced season positions the company to balance repertory-driven box-office mainstays with a separate pipeline for newly commissioned and format-flexible works.