Atlanta Opera’s 2026-27 season blends boundary-pushing works with operatic classics

Continuing its push to break boundaries, the Atlanta Opera’s 2026–27 season features two a cappella stage works, a world premiere, a Pulitzer Prize-winning opera by Kevin Puts and repertory cornerstones including Carmen, The Flying Dutchman and Tosca.

The company’s 47th season includes several Atlanta Opera debuts, among them three-time Grammy winner Ryan Speedo Green as Wagner’s tormented Dutchman.

“One reason we wanted to bring back Flying Dutchman is to show the progress we’re making in featuring superstars like Ryan Speedo Green, who’s performing at the Metropolitan Opera and other major houses,” said Tomer Zvulun, the company’s general and artistic director.

The season opens with Silent Night, the 2011 opera by Kevin Puts (music) and Mark Campbell (libretto), which tells the true story of the 1914 Christmas truce, when enemy soldiers in World War I declared a spontaneous cease-fire and came together in goodwill.

The production (November 7 through November 15) will be paired with 20 performances of All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914, Peter Rothstein’s a cappella retelling of the same legendary cease-fire, in a co-production with Theatrical Outfit at the Balzer Theater.

“I feel this is a timely story right now, as the world is torn by various kinds of hate,” Zvulun said, noting that Silent Night opens during Veterans Day week. “That story addresses war and conflict and the possibility that we can all get along and that we all have a lot in common. I feel it’s a very symbolic and powerful story to tell right now.”

Silent Night is particularly close to Zvulun’s heart: It’s an opera he has directed on stage 10 times over the past dozen years. Atlanta Opera has featured two works on the same story in different genres in the past, such as its 2024 productions of La Boheme and Rent.

The company’s production of Carmen (January 30 through February 7, 2027), last staged in 2018 and 2020, will feature Tunisian-Canadian mezzo-soprano Rihab Chaieb, who sings the role next season with the Los Angeles Opera.

The Flying Dutchman, last seen in Atlanta in 2017, runs March 13 through March 21, 2027. A new production of Tosca, starring the young Cuban-American soprano Monica Conesa in the title role, follows May 1 through May 9, 2027.

Iván López Reynoso, who was appointed the Atlanta Opera’s principal conductor last summer, will occupy the podium for Silent Night, The Flying Dutchman and Tosca. Zvulun will serve as stage director for those three productions. Larger productions will continue at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, while smaller works will be staged at other Atlanta venues.

As part of the NOW (New Opera Works) Festival in June 2027, the company will present two productions at Morehouse College’s Ray Charles Performing Arts Center, including the world premiere of Rosenbaum and Li (Rose, Tree), winner of the 2025 96-Hour Opera Project.

The company will also produce Jubilee, a theatrical tribute to the Fisk Jubilee Singers. The a cappella musical by NOW Festival Artistic Advisor Tazewell Thompson and Dianne Adams McDowell follows the famed choral ensemble born on the campus of Fisk University in the wake of the Civil War.

Atlanta Opera recently broke ground on the Molly Blank Center for Opera and the Arts, its future home, which will include two performance spaces: a rehearsal hall/black box theater and a recital hall designed for solo performances as well as jazz and bluegrass.

By featuring works in multiple genres, production styles and venues, the Atlanta Opera strives to “offer a bold statement of what opera can be,” Zvulun said.

“Atlanta Opera has shown that opera can live comfortably on a grand stage, in a black-box theater, in a circus tent, in an abandoned warehouse and on streaming platforms,” Zvulun said. “The 2026-27 season goes even further in breaking the boundaries of opera.”

For more information about Atlanta Opera’s 2026-27 season, visit the Atlanta Opera’s website.

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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, the South Carolina Daily Gazette and Classical Voice North America.