2025-2026 Season Announcement

Explore Celebrate Opera! A Spectacular Birthday Concert

November 15 & 16, 2025

Austin Opera celebrates 40 years as a fixture of the Austin cultural landscape with a special birthday concert featuring some of opera’s most iconic showstoppers. Timothy Myers, Austin Opera’s Sarah and Ernest Butler Music Director and one of America’s most versatile conductors, leads the Austin Opera Orchestra & Chorus and a cast of guest vocalists in famous arias and ensembles from operatic masterpieces and selections from show tunes.

“I am so pleased by the wonderful variety of artistic experiences we have created for this 40th birthday season in Austin. November’s birthday concert will be both an exciting preview of this season’s Carousel and La Bohème as well as a celebration of the artists who make opera such a singularly thrilling live experience. There will be something for every Austinite, whether this is your first year as an opera fan or your 40th.”

–Timothy Myers, Sarah and Ernest Butler Music Director

Joining the concert as guest soloists are some of opera’s top voices. Described by The New York Times as possessing an “agile coloratura technique and a feeling for the Italianate style… with warmth, full penetrating sound and tenderness,” American soprano Leah Crocetto continues to astonish audiences with her moving portrayals of opera’s greatest heroines. She most recently joined Austin Opera in February 2025 as a soloist for Verdi’s Requiem. Tenor Jonathan Burton is engaged to sing the most demanding roles in the repertoire including Cavaradossi in Tosca, Calaf in Turandot, Dick Johnson in Fanciulla del West, and Radames in Aida. In 2023, Burton delighted Austin Opera audiences as Canio in Pagliacci. Mezzo-soprano Zoie Reams, lauded by Opera News for her “velvety mezzo,” last appeared in Austin as the Beggar Woman Sweeney Todd. Baritone Malcolm MacKenzie has been heard in leading opera houses throughout the U.S. and Europe. Opera News recently raved that “his rich, warm, and dark tone was bolstered by a relentless legato line.” He’ll make his Austin Opera debut in April 2025 as Sharpless in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly.

Sarah and Ernest Butler Music Director Timothy Myers conducts the Austin Opera Orchestra and Chorus. Rebecca Herman serves as stage director with lighting design by Kathryn Eader and audio design by Bill Mester.

Explore Carousel

February 5, 7 & 8, 2026

Step right up and take your seat for this enduring story of the power of love and redemption, brimming with the unforgettable songs “Soliloquy,” “If I Loved You,” and “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” The timeless American musical and stunning new production is brought to life by the Austin Opera Orchestra & Chorus, and a cast of top-tier vocalists.

Recognized for her unique artistic curiosity in world-class performances spanning the music of Claudio Monteverdi and Georg Frideric Handel through to Missy Mazzoli and Sir George Benjamin, Austin native Lauren Snouffer is celebrated as one of the most versatile and respected sopranos on the international stage. Last seen on the Austin Opera stage as Rosina in 2022’s The Barber of Seville, Snouffer returns as Julie Jordan opposite Mark Diamond as Billy Bigelow. Complimented for his “virile and buzzy baritone” Diamond impressed Austin audiences in the fall of 2024 as Sgt. Raymond Shaw, the U.S. soldier and war hero caught in a web of political intrigue in Kevin Puts and Mark Campbell’s The Manchurian Candidate, and in 2023 as the earnest, love-struck Anthony in Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd. Grammy-winning soprano Mela Sarajane Dailey, who wowed Austin audiences as Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd, returns as Nettie Fowler, Julie’s cousin and trusted confidant. Ryan Everett Wood co-stars as Enoch Snow, with Robert Faires as Starkeeper. Timothy Myers leads the Austin Opera Orchestra & Chorus.

The new production is created in partnership with Boston Lyric Opera (premiering April 2025) and directed by Anne Bogart, with choreography by Shura Baryshnikov. Carousel‘s design team includes set design by Sara Brown, lighting design, Brian Scott, costume design, Haydee Zelideth, and audio design, Bill Mester.

Explore La Bohème

April 30, May 1-3, 2026

One of the most beloved operas of all time, La Bohème follows the lives of young people living in the Latin Quarter of Paris. Puccini’s soaring, aching melodies perfectly capture the emotion of every moment, from the exhilaration of young love at first sight to the story’s heartbreaking conclusion.

Tenor Joshua Blue, who last appeared with Austin Opera as Scaramuccio in Ariadne auf Naxos, returns for three performances (April 30, May 1, May 2) as Rodolfo, a role for which he has earned rave reviews with Opera Philadelphia, the Glimmerglass Festival, and English National Opera. Rising tenor Demetrious Sampson, Jr., sings the role of Rodolfo on Sunday, May 3. Hailey Clark is an award-winning operatic soprano who continues to garner praise on the international stage for her signature character portrayals, as well as her versatility in operatic and concert repertoire spanning nearly three centuries. Having made her role debut as the defiant Nedda in Austin Opera’s 2023 Pagliacci, she returns to the Long Center as shy seamstress Mimì.

Baritone Troy Cook, praised for his “strong, well-rounded portrayal of Marcello” (Opera News), returns to Austin Opera, where he impressed as Father Palmer in the Pulitzer Prize-winning opera Silent Night by Kevin Puts and Mark Campbell. Making her Austin Opera debut as Marcello’s love, Musetta, is American soprano Jasmine Habersham, a versatile and dynamic performing artist whose voice has been hailed as “exquisite” by Broadway World and possessing a “well-controlled, silvery tone” by Opera Today.

La Bohème is Directed by Austin native Eboni Adams. Design team includes lighting by James Sale, set design by R. Keith Brumley for Lyric Opera of Kansas City, costume design by Martin Pakledinaz for Seattle Opera, and audio design by Bill Mester.