Engraving in a book, "America revisited: From the Bay of New York to the Gulf of Mexico, and from Lake Michigan to the Pacific," by Sala, George Augustus (1828-1895), volume II, published 1882.
In 2026, the 250th year since America gained its independence, New Orleans will also be celebrating a somewhat mystical alignment of anniversaries in the world of performing arts.
There is the centennial of Edna Ferber’s bestselling novel Show Boat, which inspired the first great American musical by the same name—joined by the 100th birthday of the “Father of American Opera,” Carlisle Sessions Floyd; as well as the 99th for New Orleans-born, internationally-acclaimed bass-baritone Norman Treigle.
And over it all: the 230th anniversary of André Ernest Grétry’s staging of Sylvain at the Théâtre St. Pierre in New Orleans, the first documented opera performance on American soil.
Meting these occasions in due fashion, the New Orleans Opera Association (NOOA) is doing what New Orleanians do best: hosting a festival of unprecedented grandeur. The inaugural New Orleans Opera Festival, to be held from March 24–April 1, will honor the city’s storied history as the American birthplace of the genre, the home of the first opera house in the country.
“Every new opera from the [European] continent premiered in America here, and then went to New York,” said Lila Palmer, an acclaimed British-American producer and librettist who joined NOOA as artistic director and CEO in 2024. “There were eight opera houses here, performing Italian, French, German, and English repertoire for everyone—including free people of color, Creoles, and the enslaved. No one was not touched by opera in the city. Opera is as foundational to the musical identity of New Orleans as Congo Square and Acadie.”
Palmer noted that there has not been a focus on delivering full-scale professional opera in the French Quarter in over a century, since the 1919 burning of the city’s main opera venue, Théâtre de l’Opéra. That devastating blow to the city’s opera scene has been compounded in more recent years by the loss of the Theatre for the Performing Arts after Hurricane Katrina.
“This festival puts a living history back where it first bloomed,” she said, “and casts a vision and possibilities for the future.”
The star-studded festival will “go into the center of the opera world,” with multiple showings of four full-scale operas, as well as a series of concerts by international opera stars, according to NOOA Director of External Affairs Christopher Tidmore. “There really is something for everybody,” said Palmer, “[whether] you want your performance close and personal—with history unfolding right before your eyes—or if you want a romantic fantasy and the chance to be swept away to an earlier and more glamorous time, and just hear music that will break your heart and then uplift it.”
“There were eight opera houses here, performing Italian, French, German, and English repertoire for everyone—including free people of color, Creoles, and the enslaved. No one was not touched by opera in the city. Opera is as foundational to the musical identity of New Orleans as Congo Square and Acadie.” —Lila Palmer
At the festival’s centerpiece are four intimate performances of Francis Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites, to be staged in the Old Ursuline Convent with music by the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO). Audiences limited to 250 will have “unparalleled access to the performers” of this French Revolution story about a group of Carmelite nuns who refused to renounce their vocation. (The real nuns who inspired the opera were canonized as saints by Pope Francis in December 2024—in part due to a miracle that took place in New Orleans, when a Carmelite lay sister was reportedly cured of cancer after praying to them.) The cast will include Norman Treigle’s daughter, Phyllis and granddaughter, Emily—both nationally recognized operatic performers from New Orleans, as well as one of the hottest sopranos on the national opera circuit, Leah Hawkins. “This is going to be the equivalent of going to a super limited access private gig, in operatic terms, but at the most refined level possible,” said Palmer. “We expect it to be heavily oversold.”
There will also be two performances of Richard Strauss’s comic opera Der Rosenkavalier, which, according to Palmer, “is the one to choose if you like lush romantic film scores and historical fiction,” and concerns deeply human dramas including aging as a woman, coming of age as a young girl, loving more than one person, and navigating the complexities of class. The show, to be staged at the Mahalia Jackson Theater, will feature opera superstars, including soprano Amanda Majeski, conductor David Neely, and Tony award-winning director Melly Still.
When planning the festival, the centennial of the novel that inspired Oscar Hammerstein II and Jerome Kern’s Mississippi River musical Show Boat felt, to Palmer, too good an opportunity to pass up. “Having a showboat available on the Mississippi River, it would have just been a travesty not to acknowledge that and have some fun,” she said. “Think Broadway stars singing the hits and reimagined arrangements by Louisiana musicians, including of course, ‘Ol’ Man River’”—all staged river boat cruise-style.
“This concert is really a metaphor for what I hope the experience of the festival will bring people, which is the opportunity to reconnect with themselves, the musical heritage of the city, and the direct experience of their environment.” —Lila Palmer
With so many of the opera world’s biggest names in town, the festival will also stage a series of concerts, including one by Majeski—who will be joined by the Treigles—as well as one by global opera star, South African soprano Golda Schultz. “She is an old-fashioned star,” said Palmer, “and one of the most exciting singers I have ever seen in concert.” There will also be a more relaxed candlelight concert at St. Mary’s Chapel—“For me, it’s really important that the festival also provides some quiet spaces and moments for reflection … when people are experiencing peaceful music and shared experiences together.”
The grand finale of the festival will be a progressive performance of Carlisle Floyd’s 1955 song cycle work, Pilgrimage, which he based on Biblical texts. Taking place the Wednesday of Holy Week, the immersive experience will lead the audience on a pilgrimage through the French Quarter, with four stops for live musical performances on the street, culminating in an orchestral denouement by LPO. “This is going to be literally a journey of discovery, musically and physically,” said Palmer. “This concert is really a metaphor for what I hope the experience of the festival will bring people, which is the opportunity to reconnect with themselves, the musical heritage of the city, and the direct experience of their environment.”
Tickets to Dialogues des Carmélites (going fast), Der Rosenkavalier, and Pilgrimage—along with the rest of the New Orleans Opera Association’s 2025/2026 season, are currently for sale. Stay tuned for future announcements regarding the New Orleans Opera Festival, which will take place March 24–April 1, 2026.
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