The 2027 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.
The season runs July 2 through July 25 and features a new production of Jacques Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann, a new production and company premiere of Philip Glass’s Orphée and the revival of the company’s acclaimed 2017 production of Benjamin Britten’s Billy Budd.
TICKETS
Secure your subscription or individual tickets for The Tales of Hoffmann, Orphèe, and Billy Budd.
The Tales of Hoffmann
by Jacques Offenbach
Seven performances: July 2, 4, 9, 14, 17, 22, and 25
Blank Performing Arts Center
Sung in French with English translations
Step into a world where romance and imagination collide in Jacques Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann—a dazzling masterpiece filled with famous melodies, unforgettable characters, and spellbinding fantasy. Inspired by the tales of E.T.A. Hoffmann, this enchanting opera follows its poet-hero through three love stories, each more magical and captivating than the last. From sparkling choruses and lively drinking songs to soaring lyrical passages, Offenbach’s irresistible score brings to life mechanical dolls, doomed lovers, diabolical villains, and the transformative power of artistic inspiration.
ORPHÉE
by Philip Glass
Five performances: July 3, 11, 16, 21, 24
Blank Performing Arts Center
Sung in French with English translations
Philip Glass’s Orphée transforms Jean Cocteau’s celebrated reimagining of the Orpheus myth into a luminous meditation on art, love, and mortality. The poet Orphée, disillusioned by fame and estranged from those closest to him, is drawn into an enigmatic realm where the boundaries between life and death begin to dissolve. As he encounters a young poet, a mysterious Princess, and the ghostly forces that shape his destiny, Orphée embarks on a journey of self-discovery and artistic renewal. Set to Glass’s hypnotic score, Orphée is a haunting exploration of creativity, transcendence, and the enduring search for meaning.
Billy Budd
by Benjamin Britten
Five performances: July 10, 15, 18, 20, 23
Blank Performing Arts Center
Sung in English with English supertitles
Charismatic, good-hearted, and beloved by his fellow sailors, Billy Budd is pressed into service aboard a British warship during the Napoleonic Wars. His innocence and integrity inspire the crew, but also awaken jealousy and obsession in those around him. Based on Herman Melville’s classic novella, Benjamin Britten’s Billy Budd is a gripping drama that explores the moral grey zones between innocence and corruption, justice and mercy, duty and conscience. At its center stands Captain Vere, forced to make an impossible choice that will alter the lives of everyone aboard his ship.