Boston Lyric Opera (BLO), New England’s largest and most enduring opera company, is in celebratory mood. Founded in 1976, 2026 is its 50th year and 2026/27 is its 50th season. And recent seasons have seen the company experience significant growth. During its 2024/25 Season, BLO welcomed more than 22,000 audience members — its highest figures in more than a decade. Between 2019 and 2025, audience members aged 18 to 34 years old have tripled in number and audience racial diversity has increased by 70 percent.
This month BLO opens its Opera + Community Studios, a renovated and repurposed space that will serve as a rehearsal centre and administrative headquarters, and operate as a shared creative hub available to regional arts organizations and community groups. The opening is celebrated with a new production of Gustav Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde reimagined and staged by BLO Artistic Associate Anne Bogart, and conducted by BLO's music director David Angus, from 20 to 29 March 2026.
The 50th season launches in October 2026 with a new production of Rossini's Guillaume Tell, conducted by David Angus, directed by Vita Tzykun and David Adam Moore, with George Gagnidze, Konu Kim [a former Jette Parker Young Artist at Covent Garden] and Anya Matanovič. Other operas during the season include André Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire, conducted by Daniela Candillari and directed by Patricia Racette, the soprano who is now director of Opera Theatre of Saint Louis [she was Giorgetta in Covent Garden's 2016 revival of Puccini's Il trittico, see my review, and sang the title role in Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk at ENO in 2015, see my review]; a semi-staged performance of Tchaikovsky's Queen of Spades with the BLO Chorus being joined by the Tanglewood Festival Chorus; and a new production of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro featuring Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha as the Countess.
A new community opera by composer Carlos Simon and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer/former U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith had been commissioned by BLO and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Telling the stories of Bostonians and featuring dozens of community organisations, the opera will premiere at Symphony Hall, Boston in May 2027.
Other events at Opera + Community Studios include celebrity gala featuring tenor Michael Fabiano, and a staging of Osvaldo Golijov’s genre-defying work, Ayre, that draws on Jewish, Arab and Christian traditions to illuminate their connections -- and their tensions. Arye stars soprano Ailyn Pérez who made her debut with BLO as Susanna in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro during the 30th anniversary season.
Full details from the company's website.
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