Lyceum 2026-2027: big names and more budget than ever
The season includes operas with singers such as Anna Netrebko, Anna Pirozzi, and Asmik Grigorian, a recital by Lise Davidsen, and the premiere of 'The Magic Flute' according to Marcos Morau
BarcelonaThe 2026-2027 season of the Gran Teatre del Liceu will begin with sopranos Anna Netrebko and Anna Pirozzi sharing the role of Aida in a production of Verdi's opera directed by Iranian artist Shirin Neshat. And the avalanche of great singers will not stop in a program that includes nine staged operas, four with concert versions, four dance performances, and a dozen concerts and recitals. One of the concerts will be Verdi's Requiem (November 3 and 4) with Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen, the great winner of the 2025-2026 season for her memorable debut as Isolde in memorable debut as Isolde in Tristan und Isolde. Other notable voices of the season include Asmik Grigorian (still with the strong memory of her sensational Manon Lescaut), Ermonela Jaho, Nina Stemme, Sondra Radvanovsky, Sara Blanch, Serena Saenz, Lisette Oropesa, Nadine Sierra, Piotr Beczala, Brian Jadge, Roberto Alagna, Carles Pachon, Roger Padulles...
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The revenue forecast for the 2026-2027 season is the highest in the Liceu's history: 63.1 million euros, 5 million more than in the previous one. The contribution from public administrations remains at 48% (around 30 million), and patronage reaches 8.4 million euros. "It is an important moment for the Liceu, and there is an expectation of growth," says Salvador Alemany, president of the board of trustees of the Gran Teatre del Liceu. Regarding expenses, the theater will allocate 17 million to the artistic part (2 million less than the previous season); 1.2 million to the educational proposal, and 1 million to the social program, which includes the production of the second community opera after the good reception of La gata perduda: this time, the Liceu, with the collaboration of the Sant Andreu district, is bringing forward La rosa dels set pètals, with music by Tomàs i Lucas Peire, musical direction by Manel Valdivieso, stage direction by Israel Solà, and libretto by Blanca Bardagil.
As announced a few weeks ago, one of the main operatic attractions is the start of the Wagnerian tetralogy with stage direction by Tobias Kratzer. Also noteworthy are two Liceu productions, Janáček's Jenůfa, according to Àlex Ollé; and Mozart's The Magic Flute, by choreographer Marcos Morau, the founder of the company La Veronal, which premiered two years ago at the Rambla theater with the striking ballet Afanador. And pay attention to a rather special contemporary proposal: The exterminating angel, the opera by Thomas Adès, inspired by the Luis Buñuel film, which will arrive at the Liceu in a production directed by Calixto Bieito.
From Italian theaters will come two Puccini operas, La bohème, with stage direction by Paolo Gavanezzi and Piero Maranghi, which premiered at the Teatro Regio in Turin in 2020, and Puccini's La fanciulla del West according to Valentina Carrasco, produced by the same theater in 2024. And in Milan two years ago, Adrian Noble's production of Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi premiered, which will arrive in Barcelona in the autumn of 2026. In addition, there will be the return six years later of David McVicar's staging of Mozart's La clemenza di Tito which this time will be conducted by Jordi Savall. In total: two by Puccini, two by Mozart, and one each by Bellini, Wagner, Verdi, Janáček, and Adès.
Heritage recovery
The operatic programming, but in concert version, proposes the heritage premiere of Schiava e Regina, by the Barcelona composer Lluïsa Casagemas (1873-1943); Cançó d'amor i guerra, by Rafael Martínez Valls, on the centenary of its premiere; Les pêcheurs de perles, by Bizet, conducted by Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre; and Il triomfo del tempo e del disinganno, by Händel, with maestro Giovanni Antonini leading Il Giardino Armonico. There will also be a local proposal for a pocket-sized Lucia di Lammermoor that will be performed at the Tinglados del Moll.
In the realm of concerts and recitals, besides Verdi's Requiem with Lise Davidsen, Freddie De Tommaso, Aigul Akhmetshina, and Christian van Horn, conducted by Nicola Luisotti, there will be performances by Anna Netrebko, Brian Judge, and George Petean; by Ermonela Jaho, Jakub Józef Orlinski, and De Tommaso (the New Year's Eve Concert); by Sondra Radvanovsky with pianist Anthony Manoli; by Nadine Sierra accompanied by Bryan Wagorn; and one by Asmik Grigorian titled A diva is born which includes, among others, arias by Bizet and Puccini and songs by Lady Gaga. The symphonic section will offer singular proposals such as Scheherazade, by Rimsky-Korsakov, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel and with a film by Shirin Neshat; and Ryoan-ji. The Japanese garden, by John Cage, with artistic intervention by Frederic Amat. And Jonathan Nott will conduct Britten's War Requiem.
The dance proposals are four: Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker by the Badisches Staatsballett Karlsruhe, Assembly Hall, by choreographer Crystal Pite and playwright Jonathon Young for the Kidd Pivot company; NumEros, by the Spanish National Dance Company, with pieces by Godani, Balanchine, and Forsythe; and the Grand Dance Gala produced by the Ballet de Catalunya.
The Liceu shelters all this programming under the concept of "(de)sacralizing", "transiting between the solemnity of the rite and its contemporary revision".
The 9 staged operas of the 2026-2027 season of the Liceu
'Aida', by Giuseppe Verdi
Seventeen performances from September 23 to October 15
The season will begin with one of the great titles of the repertoire in a production by the Liceu and the Paris National Opera. There will be two casts of proven Verdian solvency led by Anna Netrebko and Yusif Eyvazov, and Anna Pirozzi and Piotr Beczała, respectively. There will also be alternation in the pit, Antonello Manacorda and Josep Gil. And everyone in the service of the staging that Iranian visual artist Shirin Neshat premiered in Salzburg in 2017 and revised later in Paris. As the chronicles detail, Neshat above all uses the ballet parts to show images of repression in Iran.
'I Capuleti e i Montecchi', by Vincenzo Bellini
Seven performances from October 30 to November 11
Bel canto with two contrasting bel canto singers: the American Lisette Oropesa and the Italian Raffaella Lupinacci, who debuts at the Liceu. Maestro Riccardo Frizza will conduct the orchestra in this staging by the British Adrian Noble, premiered at La Scala in Milan in 2024.
'La clemenza di Tito', by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Four performances from November 25 to December 1
in 2024, and in July 2026 will participate in
'La bohème', by Giacomo Puccini
Fifteen performances from December 30 to January 19
Various casts for this Bohème staged by Paolo Gavanezzi and Piero Maranghi and conducted by Giacomo Sagripanti. As Mimì: Pretty Yende, Ermonela Jaho and Carolina López Moreno (debuted at the Liceu in a performance of Madama Butterfly in 2024, and in July 2026 will participate in Falstaff). As Rodolfo: Freddie De Tommaso, Pene Pati, Roberto Alagna and Kang Wang. As Musetta: two of the greatest Catalan singers of the moment, Sara Blanch and Serena Sáenz. And as Marcello: Andrzej Filonczyk, Artur Ruciński and Carles Pachon. Pay attention, therefore, to the subscription turns.
'Das Rheingold'
Six performances from February 7 to 21
Indeed, the Wagnerian gods return to the Liceu, which, in co-production with the Bavarian State Opera, presents a new Ring cycle with stage direction by Tobias Kratzer and conducted by the Liceu's new musical director, Jonathan Nott. Reviews of the premiere of Das Rheingold in Munich explain that Kratzer makes the mundane world and the world of the gods coexist, blending contemporary and medieval aesthetics, daily life, and magic. "As in the Marvel universe, in The Rhine Gold there is also strange magic in this world, a parallel universe to our present, with the technological devices and psychology of our era, but permeated by magic," said the stage director when he presented the tetralogy in Barcelona at the end of February.
'La fanciulla del West', by Giacomo Puccini
Six performances from March 8 to March 24
Sondra Radvanovsky, always beloved at the Liceu, shares the spotlight in the season's second Puccini with Angelo Villari and Roman Burdenko. Many eyes will be on the staging proposal by the Argentine Valentina Carrasco, a necessary accomplice of Àlex Ollé in productions seen at the Liceu such as Le Grand Macabre, Quartett, and the exceptional Tristan und Isolde in 2017. The orchestra will be conducted by Nicola Luisotti, who at the Liceu successfully conducted La forza del destino in 2024.
'The exterminating angel', by Thomas Adès
Six performances from April 15 to April 22
The Liceu's commitment to operas by living composers continues, at the very least by programming at least one title each year. The current season has been Philip Glass's Akhnaten, by Philip Glass. And the proposal for 2026-2027 will be this opera inspired by the distressing film The Exterminating Angel by Luis Buñuel. The British Thomas Adès (London, 1971) premiered it in Salzburg in 2017. Later, Calixto Bieito directed the production that was performed in Paris and that next year will arrive at the Liceu. The cast includes Scottish tenor Nicky Spence (who will be Loge in Das Rheingold), American countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo (whom you saw starring in Akhnaten, precisely) and American soprano Jacquelyn Stuker, among others. The Exterminating Angel is Adès's first work to be programmed at the Liceu.
'Jenůfa', by Leoš Janáček
Six performances from May 8 to May 22
The artistic director of the Liceu, Víctor Garcia de Gomar, maintains his confidence in Janáček. After inaugurating the 2025-2026 season with The Cunning Little Vixen, he has entrusted Àlex Ollé with a new production of Jenůfa, which is a priori one of the most anticipated premieres, also for its vocal excellence: the extraordinary Lithuanian soprano Asmik Grigorian, celebrated at the Liceu for performances such as the one she gave in Manon Lescaut, and the Swedish soprano Nina Stemme, who has had little presence in the programming of the Rambla theater.
'The Magic Flute', by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Fifteen performances from July 5 to July 29
The 2026-2027 season will have a very special closing. The Valencian choreographer Marcos Morau, founder of La Veronal and currently one of the most interesting stage directors in Europe, will have his say on The Magic Flute in a new production by the Liceu. The planned cast includes big names from current Catalan opera such as Sara Blanch, Serena Sáenz, and Carles Pachon. And the baton will be wielded by maestro Josep Pons, honorary musical director of the Liceu. The uniqueness of The Magic Flute makes it a fertile ground for the creativity of Marcos Morau, who has already demonstrated his talent in works such as La mort i la primavera, the adaptation of Mercè Rodoreda's novel that he premiered at the Venice Biennale and at the TNC; Sonoma, which took him to the Avignon Festival, and Totentanz. Morgen ist die frage.