HGO's new season

Houston Grand Opera shines a light on classic works for 2025-26 season

Classic works and contemporary stories highlight Houston Grand Opera’s 2025-2026 season. The theme of the season is The Light We Hold.

“We chose the theme of HGO’s 2025-26 season — the light we hold — not only to honor the light we hold for our art form, and the great composers and storytellers through the centuries, but for all the artists and creatives who bring light into our world,” HGO general director and CEO Khori Dastoor said in a statement.

The season opens with the George Gershwin American classic, Porgy and Bess, running from October 24 to November 7. Bass-baritone Michael Sumuel and soprano Angel Blue lead the company as the title characters in this story set in the Jim Crow South. It follows disabled beggar Porgy and Bess, a woman struggling with addiction, as they fall in love. James Gaffigan conducts. The production is from Washington National Opera and directed by Francesco Zambello. HGO first presented the opera 50 years ago in a landmark production that went on to Broadway and earned HGO both a Tony and a Grammy. Select tickets to the opera are on sale now.

From October 30 to November 4 is Puccini’s Il Trittico, the company’s first-ever full presentation of the opera, a triptych of one-act operas. Il tabarro is the tragic tale of a barge captain, his young wife, and her lover, set on the Seine. Also part of the production are Suor Angelica, about a nun with a haunted past, and Gianni Schicchi, the tale of a cunning conman who turns a family’s greed into a delightful farce. Houston favorites mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton, bass-baritone Ryan McKinny, and tenor Arturo Chacón-Cruz all appear in the production. Patrick Summers, HGO’s artistic and music director, who will step down in May, 2026, conducts.

Kevin Puts and librettist Mark Campbell’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 2011 opera Silent Night, inspired by the 2005 film Joyeux Noël opens the new year, running January 23 to February 28, 2026. It tells the real-life story of a Christmas truce of 1914 during World War I, when one soldier’s defiant caroling sparks a ceasefire. James Robinson directs this trilingual production with a lead cast that includes tenor Duke Kim as German opera singer/soldier Nikolaus Sprink with soprano Sylvia D’Eramo as his diva lover, Anna Sørensen, joined by bass-baritone Ryan McKinny, baritone Iurii Samoilov, and baritone Thomas Glass as the story’s three lieutenants. Dynamic young conductor Kensho Watanabe makes his company debut at the podium.

From January 30 to February 15, 2026, Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel returns to the HGO stage. Adapted from the Brothers Grimm tale of two children who encounter an enchanted candy cottage in the woods, it features a whimsical score full of German nursery songs that was created in association with London’s Royal Ballet and Opera and San Francisco Opera. The opera stars mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke as Hansel and soprano Mané Galoyan as Gretel leading a stellar cast. Mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton makes a star turn as the Witch. Andreas Ottensamer, artistic director of the Bürgenstock Festival in Switzerland, makes his HGO debut as conductor.

Director Robert Wilson’s mesmerizing vision of the beloved Messiah, composed by Handel and arranged by Mozart, is on stage from April 17 to May 3, 2026. It’s the first time this production will be seen in the United States. A meditation on Jesus’s role as the Christian messiah, originally conceived for concert halls, the show will be transformed into a theatrical spectacle reminiscent of Disney’s Fantasia. Patrick Summers conducts.

The season closes with a fan favorite, Rossini’s uproarious masterpiece The Barber of Seville, onstage from April 24 to May 10, 2026. A co-production of the Canadian Opera Company, Opéra National de Bordeaux, and Opera Australia, this delightful staging is the creation of director Joan Font, returning to Houston following the triumph of his acclaimed Cinderella. Baritone Will Liverman makes his HGO debut as the charming barber Figaro, tenor Jack Swanson is Count Almaviva, and mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack makes her company debut as the mysterious beauty Rosina. Gemma New, principal conductor of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, makes her company debut at the podium.

In addition to the mainstage season, the company presents a series of additional programming. HGO’s annual Concert of Arias, the live final round of the Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers, is on February 6, 2026. A small group of talented emerging artists performs, accompanied by the renowned HGO Orchestra.

February 14, 2026 is the second annual Family Day, where the opera company will present a 90-minute, English-language, relaxed-environment performance of Hansel and Gretel.

The acclaimed Butler Studio for Young Artists presents a fully staged production of composer Carlisle Floyd’s Of Mice and Men on March 13 and 15, 2026. It’s based on the classic novel by John Steinbeck and the production celebrates the centennial of the composer’s birth.

HGO offers a variety of ticket offerings, from flexible three-opera packages to the full six-opera season, with full subscriptions starting at $90. Subscriptions are now available at HGO.org. Single tickets to the November 9, 11, 13, and 15 performances of Porgy and Bess are also available now.

Photo courtesy Houston Grand Opera

Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel returns to the Houston Grand Opera stage in the company's 2025-2026 season.

your attention please

Houston Grand Opera names Rice alum James Gaffigan its next music director

Photo by Claire McAdams

Houston Grand Opera names James Gaffigan as next Music Director

Opera lovers in the audience for the Houston Grand Opera’s magnificent season opening production of Porgy and Bess didn’t know it, but they were hearing HGO’s future. James Gaffigan, the acclaimed conductor of the performance will no longer be called an honored guest to the company and our city; instead, he’ll make the Wortham Center his new home.

HGO announced on Thursday, November 6, that Gaffigan will serve as the fifth music director in its 70-year history, leading the company alongside general director and CEO Khori Dastoor. He replaces Patrick Summers, who announced last year that he would step down as artistic and music director at the end of the 2025-26 season.

When Gaffigan begins his term as music director designate for the 2026-27 season and then assumes the full role of music director in the 2027-28 season, he won’t find Houston an unfamiliar landscape. Though originally from New York, Gaffigan once lived here while earning his master’s degree from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University.

After his time at Rice, he quickly rose to international superstardom in both symphonic and operatic circles. He has conducted some of the greatest orchestras around the country, including the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and many others. In Europe he has taken the podium at the London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin, and more.

In 2011, he made both his HGO and American operatic debut with the company’s production of The Marriage of Figaro. He has also become a very welcome guest conductor for national and international opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper, Opéra National de Paris, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and more.

For the past several years, he has made a home in Europe serving as the general music director of Komische Oper Berlin, and he recently completed his fourth and final season as music director of the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía in Valencia, Spain.

Even with such a strong global presence, this Rice Owl continues to migrate back to Houston, guest conducting the Houston Symphony several times. Last year, he lead the first-ever performance by the HGO Orchestra at the annual Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers Concert of Arias.

Gaffigan’s ties to Houston are so strong that back in 2011, CultureMap’s own society king and classical music expert, Joel Luks, pondered if Gaffigan might be an excellent candidate for Houston Symphony director upon Han Graf ’s retirement. Luks, who attended the Shepherd School at the same time as Gaffigan, lauded the maestro’s sense of musical timing, charisma, and spirit.

$\u200bHouston Grand Opera names James Gaffigan as next Music Director$

Photo by Claire McAdams

Houston Grand Opera has named James Gaffigan as its next Music Director.

“He seems to understand music-making in a macro level, presenting a cohesive interpretation, while allowing musicians freedom of expression,” described Luks, also noting Gaffigan’s ability to connect with musicians and audiences, alike.

It turns out Luks’s prediction for a musical directorship for Gaffigan was only off by 14 years and about a theater district block, the distance from Jones Hall to the Wortham Center.

“I always knew that the first post I would take in the United States as music director had to be the perfect fit,” Gaffigan said in a statement. “All the boxes needed to be ticked. As I considered which institution, which city, and which community aligned with my dreams and goals for an American institution, I found HGO to be my ideal partner. In my opinion, HGO is the most exciting opera company in the United States. It is rare to find such a healthy institution, with tremendous potential, and a solid foundation on which to build.”

Gaffigan went on to reminisce that he has admired HGO since his early twenties.

“When walking into the building, I get a sense of community and excitement for our art form and the importance it has in our lives. I feel the same from the people in the greater Houston area. Houstonians want great art. Under Khori Dastoor’s leadership, the company has flourished, and it has become clear to me that the sky is the limit. I can’t wait to return to this city and start our thrilling new chapter together.”

Dastoor sings similar praises for Gaffigan.

“To welcome James Gaffigan back to Houston, and to HGO, as our new music director represents the fulfillment of an ambitious dream,” stated Dastoor. “This fall, Houston audiences have had the incredible opportunity to witness his passion, electric energy, and mind-blowing artistry at the podium. I am overjoyed that today’s leading American conductor — who embodies a new generation of music-making at the highest level — has chosen to invest fully in this company. James was steeped in the art and culture of Houston on his way to finding phenomenal international success. His return is both a testament to our city and a reflection of HGO’s ascendance as a force in the global opera industry.”

For those wanting to get a taste of that passion and energy Gaffigan will bring to his role as Houston Grand Opera music director, he conducts Porgy and Bess November 7 and 9.

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