Pittsburgh Opera Announces 2026/2027 Season: General Director Christopher Hahn Previews the Program Before Retirement

By Mingsi Ma

On April 2, Pittsburgh Opera announced its 2026/2027 season. The upcoming season comprises five carefully curated productions in order: Rigoletto, Orpheus & Eurydice, Partenope, Working for the Macbeths (World Premiere), and Romeo & Juliet. As announced by Pittsburgh Opera in March 2025, Christopher Hahn, who has led the company as General Director since 2008 and served as Artistic Director since 2000, is set to retire in May 2026. His final role at Pittsburgh Opera is to curate the 2026/2027 season and pass the baton to his successor, William Powers, effective July 1, 2026.

For Hahn, the final season adheres to his long-held artistic beliefs and reflects his vision for the company. Under his leadership, Pittsburgh Opera has significantly expanded its repertoire, introducing Baroque and contemporary operas and moving beyond the cliché that opera equals 19th-century Italian opera. With a fine mix of works created across eras and an emphasis on introducing new work, this philosophy still dominates Hahn’s final season.

As Hahn describes his approach, “I try to anchor the season with really well-known, popular works… [while creating] spice and interest for new audiences and something of real depth for our long-term loyalists.”

The five productions comprise a good mix of two comedies and three tragedies. They take place across four venues that vary drastically in size — the Benedum Center, Byham Theater, CAPA Theater, and Pittsburgh Opera’s own Bitz Opera Factory — purposefully diversifying the experience between grand spectacle and intimate listening.

The tragic tale of Rigoletto opens the season with its story of love, betrayal, murder, and great sorrow. “The Rigoletto Quartet is one of the great musical achievements of the 19th century. It never fails to put chills up my spine, and audiences completely go bonkers for it,” Hahn says, pointing to one of the work’s most celebrated musical highlights.

Christopher Hahn from Pittsburgh Opera’s recent Fashion Show, alongside Resident Artist Shannon Crowley, a recent Met Opera Laffont Competition winner. (Image by David Bachman Photography)

Pittsburgh Opera season opener Rigoletto. “Pittsburgh Opera will be doing the same production but with our own cast.” (Image credit Eric Antoniou for Boston Lyric Opera)

Following that, Orpheus & Eurydice is one of the rarer pieces being performed and showcases the extraordinary beauty of the three lead performers’ singing.

Balancing out the tragedies are two comedies, Partenope and Working for the Macbeths. The two works are planned with Pittsburgh Opera’s Resident Artists Program in mind and feature these artists in principal roles. This residency program hosts a small group of exceptional young artists selected from over 500 applicants. The highly selective program trains young artists through a combination of principal and supporting roles across the company’s productions.

Hahn sees Handel’s Partenope as a particular fit for young singers, noting that Handel wrote many of his operas for performers in their twenties. Young singers’ technical flexibility, he explains, is well suited to the composer’s complex and challenging style and can result in “basically vocal fireworks.”

Pittsburgh Opera’s current class of Resident Artists – L/R Matt Soibelman, Maeve Berry, Lauryn Davis, Shannon Crowley (kneeling), Erik Nordstrom (also kneeling), Audrey Welsh, Dana Kinney, Logan Wagner (Image by David Bachman Photography)

The season’s world premiere, Working for the Macbeths, is a new opera with music by Johanny Navarro and a libretto by Marcus Yi, commissioned by American Lyric Theater (NY). Trusted with the world premiere rights, the production reflects Pittsburgh Opera’s ongoing collaboration within the field.

For Hahn, programming this new opera and providing exposure to new works is an essential part of preparing young Resident Artists for their professional careers:

“There is nothing more energizing and encouraging to their professional development than working on a new piece. We’re in a sort of hothouse period of opera composition, which is contrary to the popular imagination that opera is dead and that it belongs to the 19th-century Italian tradition. With all of this ferment, young singers are entering a world where they will often be required to work on world premieres or contemporary pieces.”

The season concludes with Romeo and Juliet, based on Shakespeare’s classic. Hahn describes the production as “exquisitely designed”, “romantic, gauzy, and sweet.”

As Hahn prepares for his retirement, he looks forward to moving back to San Francisco. He expresses great confidence in Pittsburgh Opera’s upcoming transition under the next General Director, William Powers, citing his familiarity with the company and the broader Pittsburgh arts community.

“We’re great friends. I respect him and trust him enormously. Consequently, the normal anxiety that someone like me might feel about leaving is something I’m completely relieved of, because I’m actually really excited for him and for the company.”

Pittsburgh Opera’s 2026 / 2027 Season Overview

Rigoletto Music by Giuseppe Verdi, libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, based on the play Le Rois’ Amuse by Victor Hugo at Benedum Center for the Performing Arts, downtown Pittsburgh | October 10, 16, 18, 2026

Orpheus & Eurydice | Music by Christoph Willibald Gluck (1762), with instrumentation by Hector Berlioz (1859), libretto by Ranieri de’ Calzabigi at Byham Theater, downtown Pittsburgh | November 14, 20, 22, 2026

Partenope | Music by George Frideric Handel, original libretto by Silvio Stampiglia at Pittsburgh CAPA School Theater, downtown Pittsburgh | January 23, 26, 29, 31, 2027

Working for the Macbeths – World Premiere! | Music by Johanny Navarro, libretto by Marcus Yi at Bitz Opera Factory, in Pittsburgh’s Strip District | February 27, March 2, 5, 7, 2027

Romeo & Juliet | Music by Charles Gounod, Libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on the play by William Shakespeare at the Benedum Center for the Performing Arts | April 17, 22, 2027\

TICKETS AND DETAILS

Season ticket subscriptions are now available at: https://pittsburghopera.org/tickets/subscribe-today. Subscription packages range from $36-595. Individual tickets go on sale in August.

For more details, cast and creative lists and associated programming visit https://pittsburghopera.org/about/