Opera Orlando to celebrate 10th anniversary throughout 2025-26 season
From original productions to company remounts and more that include auxiliary events and annual events, Opera Orlando is celebrating its 10th anniversary throughout its 2025-26 season.
The upcoming season will feature three original On the MainStage productions in Steinmetz Hall at Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, the “All is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914,” presented in partnership with Orlando Family Stage, and “The Secret River,” presented in partnership with Mead Botanical Garden. Along with the company’s annual Summer Concert Series and The Mozart Dinner.
The season will finish with “A Decade of Divas,” a one-night-only concert with the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra, also in Steinmetz Hall.
“It’s time to party! And from what I hear, no one parties quite like the Opera,” Opera Orlando general director Gabriel Preisser said in a news release. “Each production this season is a look back and a look forward for the company, celebrating our past and highlighting continued artistic and organizational growth for years to come.”
Since its first season in 2016, Opera Orlando has undergone exponential growth from a $250,000 budget to now over $3 million while remaining fiscally solvent, building cash reserves, and creating an endowment fund thanks to angel donor Helen Hall Leon.
In addition, the company first launched with only two productions per season at the Alexis and Jim Pugh Theater. The company is now producing three large-scale operas at Steinmetz Hall, as well as a site-specific production, a touring production in the schools and a community-focused production each season. The Opera presents multiple concerts, education programs, and other auxiliary events throughout the season.
Season packages for the Opera’s Dr. Phillips Center productions start at $89. Subscribers can save up to $50 with season launch pricing through July 4.
OPERA ORLANDO IN CONCERT: SUMMER CONCERT SERIES
Sundays | August 10, 17, 24, 2025 at 2 p.m.
University Club of Winter Park
The Summer Concert Series presents a diverse selection of songs, arias, and duets from artists featured throughout the Opera’s 10th anniversary season including a return of “The 3 Baritones” and the Opera Orlando debuts of soprano Bizhou Chang and tenor Brendan J. Boyle.
OPERA ON THE MAINSTAGE | LA BOHÈME
Music by Giacomo Puccini and libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa
Sung in Italian with English and Spanish supertitles
Friday | October 3, 2025 at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday | October 5, 2025 at 2 p.m.
Steinmetz Hall at Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts
Supported by AdventHealth, Opera Orlando’s original production of “La Bohème” transports the world of Puccini’s lovesick, young bohemians from Paris, France, to Shanghai – the “Paris of the East” – during the 1930s.
Depicting the joys and sorrows of love and loss, Puccini’s “La Bohème” has inspired several generations over its 130-year existence and has inspired the Broadway musical “Rent.”
OPERA IN THE TRENCHES | ALL IS CALM: THE CHRISTMAS TRUCE OF 1914
Written by Peter Rothstein with vocal arrangements by Erick Lichte and Timothy C. Takach
Sung a cappella in English with English dialogue
Friday | December 12, 2025 at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday | December 13, 2025 at 2 p.m. & 7:30 p.m.
Sunday | December 14, 2025 at 2 p.m.
Universal Orlando Foundation Theatre at Orlando Family Stage
A German soldier steps into No Man’s Land to sing “Stille Nacht (Silent Night),” which begins a night of music, acceptance, and peace.
Back by popular demand, Opera Orlando is remounting “All Is Calm” at Orlando Family Stage. This community-centered production serves as a lead-up and preview to the MainStage version of the same story, “Silent Night.” “All Is Calm” performances will be presented free for the community.
THE MOZART DINNER: 10 years of Opera in Orlando
Saturday | January 31, 2026 at 6 p.m.
Steinmetz Hall at Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts
With a candlelit dinner on stage in Steinmetz Hall, serenaded by a spectacular slate of singers and hosted by Mozart himself, attendees can take a look back on and celebrate Opera Orlando’s 10-year history with opera and musical theater favorites, all to raise money for the company’s future programming.
Email GPreisser@OperaOrlando.org to purchase a table.
OPERA ON THE MAINSTAGE | SILENT NIGHT
Music by Kevin Puts and libretto by Mark Campbell
Sung in multiple languages with English and Spanish supertitles
Friday | February 6, 2026 at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday | February 8, 2026 at 2 p.m.
Steinmetz Hall at Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts
“Silent Night” recounts a moment of peace during World War I, when Scottish, French, and German officers defied their superiors and negotiated a Christmas Eve truce. Opera Orlando presents a brand new production of this Pulitzer Prize-winning work.
OPERA ON SITE | THE SECRET RIVER
Music by Stella Sung and libretto by Mark Campbell
Adapted from the book “The Secret River” by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings with illustrations by Leo and Diane Dillon, commissioned by Opera Orlando
Sung in English and presented outdoors
Friday | March 6, 2026 at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday | March 7, 2026 at 7:30 p.m.
Grove Stage at Mead Botanical Garden
Opera Orlando remounts “The Secret River” this season on site at Mead Botanical Garden. Opera Orlando presented the world premiere of “The Secret River” in 2021 as the company’s first commission.
A one-act chamber opera set in Central Florida during the Great Depression, “The Secret River” follows the journey of Calpurnia, a young, intelligent girl with a robust imagination, as she searches for a secret river to help her family and small town.
OPERA ON THE MAINSTAGE | THE MERRY WIDOW
Music by Franz Lehár and libretto by Viktor Léon and Leo Stein
Sung in English with English dialogue and English and Spanish supertitles
Friday | April 24, 2026 at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday | April 26, 2026 at 2 p.m.
Steinmetz Hall at Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts
Opera Orlando’s new production of “The Merry Widow” offers a taste of old-world glamour and the can-can with a cast led by soprano Sarah Joy Miller in the title role, joined by her husband, tenor David Miller as Camille.
Conductor Noam Aviel returns to Orlando to lead the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra in the pit. The production also features dancers from the Orlando Ballet and Opera Orlando Studio Artists and Chorus.
OPERA ORLANDO IN CONCERT | A DECADE OF DIVAS
Saturday | May 16, 2026 at 7:30 p.m.
Steinmetz Hall at Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts
Capping Opera Orlando’s 10th anniversary season, “A Decade of Divas” will feature stars from the Opera’s past nine seasons singing operatic favorites and Broadway hits along with the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra and the Opera Orlando Chorus and Youth Company.
This one-night-only concert will include selections from “Rigoletto,” “The Magic Flute,” “La Traviata,” “Carousel,” “Les Misérables” and more.
This concert can be added to the On the MainStage series subscription and also includes optional VIP packages that include a pre-show reception and an after-party at the Citrus Club called “A Toast! A Toast! A Toast!”
Opera on the MainStage subscriptions start at $89 and are on sale through the Dr. Phillips Center’s Bill & Mary Darden Box Office (445 S. Magnolia Avenue, Orlando), online at DrPhillipsCenter.org, or by calling 407-358-6603. The special season launch pricing is available through July 4 that includes a 10% discount on “A Decade of Divas” when added to the subscription package.