The 2026 Festival Season
Experience sung stories brought to life by extraordinary artists in a theatre that brings you within arm’s reach of the action on the stage—sit any closer and you’ll need a costume! Every seat in our intimate 467-seat arena-style theatre is closer to the center of the stage than the first row at the Metropolitan Opera, giving the audience a truly immersive theatrical experience.
With the return of Puccini’s sweeping Tosca, the company’s first-ever presentation of Szymanowski’s radiant and rarely heard King Roger, and Carlisle Floyd’s distinctly American retelling of Of Mice and Men presented in celebration of the composer's centennial, the 2026 Festival Season offers a rich tapestry of musical and dramatic experiences. Following consecutive seasons of record-breaking ticket sales, we encourage you to secure your seats early before performances begin to sell out.
TICKETS
Secure your subscription or individual ticket reservations for Tosca, Of Mice and Men and King Roger.
Tosca
by Giacomo Puccini
June 26, 28, July 3, 8, 11, 16, 19
Blank Performing Arts Center
Sung in Italian with English translations
The year is 1800, and Rome is caught in the middle of a war between Napoleonic France and the Austrian Empire. Above the chaos, the opera diva Floria Tosca steadfastly lives for art and love. However, she too is pulled into the fray when the corrupt Baron Scarpia discovers Tosca’s lover, Cavaradossi, aided the escape of a political prisoner. In this epic battle of wills, Tosca’s world comes down to one final, fatal question: how far will she go to protect the people she loves?
Of Mice and Men
by Carlisle Floyd
June 27, July 5, 10, 15, 18
Blank Performing Arts Center
Sung in English with English supertitles
A Co-Production of Des Moines Metro Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Florida State University, and Lyric Opera of Kansas City.
Celebrating the centennial year of one of American opera’s most important composers, Carlisle Floyd, John Steinbeck’s great American novella Of Mice and Men tells the tale of two migrant ranch workers, George and Lennie. They hustle for work when they can, living hand-to-mouth, and dream of owning an acre of land and a shack they can call their own. But George cannot guard Lennie—a childlike giant of a man with a love for soft things—from the bullying of the ranch boss and his flirtatious yet unhappy young wife. Steinbeck’s timeless story becomes a superbly crafted opera of great beauty and power.
Publicity photo courtesy of Utah Opera.
King Roger
by Karol Szymanowski
July 4, 9, 12, 14, 17
Blank Performing Arts Center
Sung in Polish with English translations
A company premiere and new Des Moines Metro Opera production
When an enigmatic Shepherd from the East arrives at the Christian court of King Roger, his presence disrupts the court’s established values and view of the world. Do his teachings bring goodness and joy—or destruction and chaos? King Roger himself grapples with questions of self-knowledge, spirituality and his very identity as a monarch and a man.