Atlanta Opera’s 2025-26 season: A Ring, a Beauty and an Alliance surprise

The Atlanta Opera’s Ring cycle will soar to a grand conclusion with Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods) next year, while Philip Glass’ La Belle et la Bête gives Jean Cocteau’s 1946 film a new, operatic soundtrack, and a new co-production with the Alliance Theatre is under construction.

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The Atlanta Opera’s 46th season will open with a co-production with the Alliance Theatre and spotlight five other works, including Philip Glass’ innovative La Belle et la Bête (Beauty and the Beast), the last opera in Wagner’s Ring cycle and cornerstones of the opera repertory such as Verdi’s La Traviata and Puccini’s Turandot.

Tomer Zvulun, The Atlanta Opera’s general and artistic director, said the theme for the 2025-26 season is “Twilight,” representing “the end of an era but also transformation.” The yet-to-be-announced opening production will be a “blockbuster” American musical in a co-production with the Alliance Theatre and will open the 2025-26 seasons of both companies.

The Opera’s production of Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods), meanwhile, will mark the culmination of the company’s ambitious production of Wagner’s four-opera epic Der Ring des Nibelungen, an ultimate test for any opera company. “It’s a historic moment as we complete the first Ring cycle in the history of the company — in the history of Atlanta and in the history of the South,” Zvulun said.

“The four top opera composers — Mozart, Verdi, Wagner and Puccini — are all represented on the main stage next year with arguably their most popular works,” he added.

La Traviata: Armenian soprano Mané Galoyan will be featured as Violetta, the tragic heroine of this Verdi opera, November 8 through November 16. Tenor Long Long, last seen in Atlanta Opera’s La Bohème in 2024, sings the role of Alfredo. The production, directed by Francesca Zambello, was last staged in Atlanta in 2019.

La Belle et la Bête: Philip Glass’ take on Beauty and the Beast is an innovative screening of Jean Cocteau’s surrealist 1946 film in which the soundtrack is replaced by live music and sung dialogue onstage. According to The New Yorker: “This is the best sort of film music.” It will be performed November 15 as part of the Opera’s Discoveries series.

The Marriage of Figaro: Mozart’s comic opera, to be performed March 14 through March 22, 2026, spins a complex plot centered around the character Figaro, a servant in the household of Count Almaviva. The story is set in a single day and deals with themes of love, jealousy and social class.

Turandot: Puccini’s Princess Turandot will be sung by Angela Meade, who made her critically acclaimed debut in the role last year with the Los Angeles Opera. Italian tenor Piero Pretti will perform the role of Calaf, including the much-loved aria “Nessun Dorma.” This new production of Turandot, directed by Zvulun, will debut exactly 100 years after the opera premiered in Milan’s La Scala opera house. The Atlanta Opera production runs April 25 through May 3, 2026.

Götterdämmerung: Zvulun expressed his hope of producing Atlanta’s first Ring cycle on June 1, 2013, his first day at the helm of the Atlanta Opera. His plan became a reality in 2023 when he staged Das Rheingold, the first opera in the series. “The Ring is a big challenge for any company, which is why it is so very rarely done,” he said. “It’s arguably the greatest and most complex musical theater piece ever written.”

Das Rheingold was followed by last year’s Die Walküre. The third opera, Siegfried, is scheduled for April 26 through May 4 this year, and Götterdämmerung will conclude the Ring cycle May 30 through June 7, 2026.

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Paul Hyde is a longtime arts journalist and English instructor in Upstate South Carolina. He writes frequently for the Greenville Journal, South Carolina Daily Gazette and Classical Voice North America.