The opening concert of the 2025-26 season, announced today, is scheduled for September 20 at the Teatro Camões in Lisbon, featuring a performance of the cantata ‘Carmina Burana’.
The premieres of the new productions of Giacomo Puccini’s operas ‘Suor Angelica’ and ‘Gianni Schicchi’ by the Teatro Nacional de S. Carlos (TNSC) are set for October 2 at the Centro Cultural de Belém (CCB), with another performance two days later.
The cast includes Sílvia Sequeira (Suor Angelica) and José Fardilha (Gianni Schicchi), who “represent various generations of Portuguese singers on stage,” as highlighted in the presentation text.
The operas will feature the Orquestra Sinfónica Portuguesa (OSP) under the baton of “Puccinian maestro” Domenico Longo, known to the Portuguese audience from previous productions of ‘La bohème’, ‘Turandot’, and ‘Madama Butterfly’. The staging will be directed by Carmine De Amicis.
About a week later, on October 11, the OSP will debut at Carnegie Hall in New York, conducted by maestro Jan Wierzba, with the show ‘Amália na América’, a tribute to the life and work of Amália Rodrigues, “beyond fado”, featuring singers Cristina Branco, Raquel Tavares, and Ricardo Ribeiro.
The show, which premiered nationally a year ago, will have its international premiere in New York. The program includes songs “that marked Amália’s international career”, ranging from Portuguese folk songs to Broadway melodies she recorded in the United States.
This concert marks the end of the 40th-anniversary celebrations of the Luso-American Development Foundation (FLAD) in an initiative by Égide – Associação Portuguesa das Artes.
Domestically, as part of TNSC’s “ongoing” season while renovation works continue at its headquarters in Lisbon, the OSP concerts will include other “highlights”, aimed at a larger audience, such as the Halloween Concert featuring works by Dvorák, Saint-Saëns, Verdi, and Schnittke, and the Christmas Concert, starring Ponchielli, both at the main auditorium of the CCB.
In November, a ‘Music for Films’ program will arrive at Teatro Camões, while São Luiz – Teatro Municipal in Lisbon will feature “a lineup with works by Frederico de Freitas, Joly Braga Santos, José Vianna da Motta, and Fernando Lopes-Graça”, under the theme ‘In Search of a Portuguese Sound’.
The cycle ‘Jardim Aberto’, presenting free chamber music programs in the late afternoon at Teatro São Luiz, will also continue. In the three concerts scheduled until December, TNSC promises to delve into themes initiated in the previous season, with “the discovery of works related” to João Domingos Bomtempo, the myth of Faust, and women composers.
The Consonâncias cycle, providing a platform for instrumentalists and choristers from TNSC’s resident formations, will also continue next season, led by OSP’s principal conductor Antonio Pirolli, who has renewed his role until 2028.
The OSP “will also continue the tradition of live accompaniment” for the National Ballet Company’s Christmas show at Teatro Camões, with a total of 11 performances.
In the last four months of the year, TNSC’s programming will focus on the Lisbon region, following last season’s emphasis on nationwide circulation, to which the opera house team promises to return “with new energy” in 2026.
The exhibition ‘Remembering ‘Aida’ at São Carlos’ will be on display in Figueira da Foz until October 25, World Opera Day.
This programming is also signed by TNSC’s Artistic Committee, composed of João Paulo Santos, director of music studies, Antonio Pirolli, principal conductor of OSP at São Carlos, and Giampaolo Vessella, principal conductor of the choir.
Conductor Pedro Amaral was announced in May as the selected candidate for the role of artistic director of TNSC until 2028, following an international search, with his tenure starting on September 1.
The TNSC’s headquarters has been closed to the public since September 2024 for “conservation, restoration, requalification, and modernization works” under the Recovery and Resilience Plan.
The complete program for the start of the season is available on the TNSC’s website.
