Cincinnati Opera will present its 2026 Summer Festival from June 18 through August 2 at Cincinnati Music Hall, marking the company’s 106th anniversary season. The lineup of four productions includes a world premiere opera, the launch of a new institutional initiative centered on Black operatic work, and a co-production shared with two other major American opera companies.

The festival opens with Richard Strauss’s Salome on June 18 and 20—the opera’s first appearance at Music Hall since 2000—featuring soprano Kathryn Lewek in a role debut and conductor Robert Spano, with stage direction by Jose Maria Condemi. The season’s most significant premiere is Lalovavi, an Afrofuturist opera by composer Kevin Day and librettist Tifara Brown, scheduled for July 9 and 11. The production launches Cincinnati Opera’s new Black Opera Project, described by the company as a long-term initiative to commission and develop new operas by Black composers and librettists. The cast includes sopranos Brittany Olivia Logan and Talise Trevigne and bass Morris Robinson.

Georges Bizet’s Carmen returns to the festival July 25, 29, 31, and August 2 in a co-production with Opera Philadelphia and Seattle Opera, with mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges singing the title role. Ricky Ian Gordon’s intimate chamber opera Orpheus and Euridice is presented in the smaller Wilks Studio on July 28, 30, and August 1, alongside the Carmen run. Single tickets for the 2026 season are available at cincinnatiopera.org starting from $21, and the festival is presented by Cincinnati Opera’s Harry T. Wilks Artistic Director Evans Mirageas.

Source: BroadwayWorld Opera