Featuring a hotly-anticipated Queensland premiere, the return of a 2025 success and a sparkling new production of a musical, Opera Queensland has announced its 2026 season.

“This season celebrates the power of storytelling. To see ourselves in the hopes, fears and courage of the many different characters we encounter,” said Artistic Director and CEO Patrick Nolan.

“Every opera, every song, every concert in 2026 asks us to imagine what happens when we dream, when we wish, and when we face what lies beyond ‘happily ever after’. These timeless stories remind us that wonder lives in the telling.”

Kicking off the year is the third annual edition of the Brisbane Bel Canto Festival (29 April – 2 May). With only two performances held at the 2025 festival due to Tropical Cyclone Alfred, OQ’s La Cenerentola is again its 2026 centrepiece. Premiering in March, Limelight reviewer Paul Ballam-Cross described the production as “beautifully performed and superbly timed for comedy” in a four-and-a-half star review.

“The singing is gorgeous, the melodies are endlessly hummable, and the production is enchanting.”

Sarah Crane, Hayley Sugars and Mara Gaudenzi in La Cenerentola. Photo © Jade Ellis

The Festival also includes a collaboration with Brisbane choir One Equal Music in The Birth of Bel Canto, which traces the history of the form, a performance of Andrew Ford’s contemporary choral Red Dirt Hymns, and Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle with a choir 100 members strong, two pianos and a harmonium.

The Festival of Outback Opera is also slated to return in late May. With performances in Winton and Longreach, 2026 festival highlights include the annual Dark Sky Serenade at Winton’s Jump-Up, the Opera Ball’s pairing of music and food, and a family performance of The Adventures of Figaro.

Opera Australia’s Rusalka. Photo © Carlita Sari

Sarah Giles’ “landmark” production of Dvořák’s Rusalka, an Opera Conference commission, lands in OQ’s hands (25 June – 4 July). This time, Eleanor Lyons stars as the titular water nymph who leaves her family and life behind her after she falls in love with a prince (Rosario La Spina). Warwick Fyfe and Ashlyn Tymms reprise their roles as The Water King and the enchantress Ježibaba.

“It’s taken 40 years for another director to match [David] Pountney’s genius and Sarah Giles was the one to do it,” wrote Jansson J. Antmann in a five-star Limelight review. “The story is driven along by one brilliant directorial choice after another.”

For its final production of the year, OQ teams up with Queensland Theatre and the Queensland Symphony Orchestra for a brand-new production of Sondheim’s Broadway blockbuster Into the Woods in November. As announced with QT’s launch earlier this month, the production will be directed by OQ’s Patrick Nolan, with a cast that includes soprano Nina Korbe and musical theatre star Amy Lehpamer.

The ever-popular Studio Series also returns with performances throughout the year featuring artists including Xenia Puskarz Thomas with David Belkovski, Jessica O’Donoghue with Jack Symonds, Alexandra Flood and Carlos Bárcenas.

OQ’s All Together Now! and Bravo! jet off on a statewide regional tour, while The Adventures of Figaro – Shake & Stir Theatre Co’s adaptation of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville – rockets into school halls and regional centres around Queensland throughout the year.

More about Opera Queensland’s 2026 season can be found here.