Latest news and stories about opera in Portugal for expats and residents.
The Porto Coliseum stage hosts a new production of the classic Rigoletto, by Giuseppe Verdi, this Thursday.
A lyrical poem by Debussy and the opera-oratorio “Oedipus Rex” by Stravinsky, a beautiful overview of Western culture on October 2nd at the Gulbenkian Foundation's Grand Auditorium.
Augusta da Cruz, an operatic singer who became famous in Italy, and Augusto Hilário, an inspired and bohemian Fado singer, whose work was even sung by Amália.
Composer António Pinho Vargas refers to the current political times in Portugal as a kind of reversal of what the April 1974 revolution was. This comes in the context of the single performance of “Os Dias Levantados” at the Porto Coliseum on October 7th.
A comedy-drama about a single mother, this late 18th-century opera by Jerónimo Francisco de Lima had been forgotten in the archives. This Saturday, it will have its modern premiere at Casino Estoril.
An opera with a Portuguese musical composition was lost for 200 years. Now recovered, it takes to the stage at Casino Estoril.
More than half of the applications for the Music and Opera Creation competition under the DGArtes 2025 Project Support Programme were left without funding, as the available budget was exhausted.
The 7th edition of Operafest Lisboa and Oeiras concluded at Teatro Camões on September 11th with the 'Maratona Ópera XXI' contemporary opera competition. The event featured the world premieres of two operas by young composers, with librettos by playwright Miguel Castro Caldas. Francisco Lima da Silva's 'A Vida Secreta de Coisa' explores AI and human emotion, while Pedro Laranjeira Finisterra's 'Último Andamento' uses Haydn's 'Farewell Symphony' to examine love and gentrification in Lisbon. The jury awarded the Maratona Ópera XXI prize to Francisco Lima da Silva.
Home News Algarve opera night to end with wine tasting Algarve opera night to end with wine tasting In Faro, opera lovers will have the chance to enjoy an evening of classical music followed by a wine tasting when Swiss baritone Äneas Humm returns to the Algarve capital later this month.
Mezzo-soprano Luisa Francesconi is part of the cast for Orpheus and Eurydice on September 19th and 20th at the Óbidos Opera Festival, which begins this Saturday (September 5th).
The Romanian singer visited Portugal several times and received an award from the Government. One of the great sopranos of the second half of the 20th century, she passed away this Thursday at the age of 87.
In Third Places, he brings together works with a deep political inscription and the voice as a central element. While preparing a new opera, he debuted the programme Opera. Now. on television.
Is an extravagant staging enough to capture the essence of Beaumarchais's 'The Mad Day'? This production takes on that bold challenge. Set in the cloister of the Cartuxa Monastery in Caxias, the performance is marked by a chaotic, wind-swept atmosphere that mirrors the madness of Mozart's opera. Director Mónica Garnel and assistant Anna Leppänen opt for a burlesque, comic-book-inspired aesthetic, moving away from traditional 18th-century costumes toward a vibrant, colourful, and sometimes incongruous visual style. While the cast—featuring André Henriques, Camilla Mandillo, and Cecilia Rodrigues—delivers strong, nuanced musical performances, the production's frenetic, one-dimensional comedic approach occasionally clashes with the opera's more graceful moments. Despite some staging choices that feel out of place, the musical execution by the Portuguese Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Pedro Carneiro, remains excellent.
Turandot, Puccini's unfinished opera, marks the start of another edition of the Óperafest festival.
The theme of this edition of the festival is “Enigma”, based on the “multiple questions of existence and human feelings”. Soprano Catarina Molder says there will be a surprise in this version of “Turandot”.
The staging and set design by German director Daniela Kerck combines the original work with episodes from the life of the popular Italian composer. The festival runs until September 11th.
CantoFest brought together some of the best opera singers in the world
The Teatro Nacional de São Carlos (TNSC) is the guest 'main artist' for next year's Saaremaa Opera Festival in Estonia, according to the programme announced by the festival.
Fidelio, Carmen, Un ballo in maschera, and a Fado Night make up the Portuguese programme at the Estonian festival, from 20 to 25 July 2027.
The Teatro S. Carlos headquarters building will remain closed for renovation works under the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR). The programme includes various other venues across the country and a collaboration with the CNB.
The next season of the S. Carlos National Theatre, presented today in Lisbon, features 33 opera performances, 16 symphonic concerts, and seven chamber music programmes, which will take place outside the main building, currently undergoing renovation works.
Beethoven, Bizet, Verdi, Bach, Strauss, Camões: these are some of the names converging in the new programme for the opera house, which, while still closed for renovations, will travel through ten cities next year.
Relicário Perpétuo, a chamber opera by Luís Tinoco with an irreverent libretto by Luísa Costa Gomes and directed by Nuno Carinhas, is a fresh and pertinent work: what is the point of keeping relics?
With a libretto by writer Luísa Costa Gomes, the opera is a tragicomedy about Camões. The show moves away from a static tribute to question the very authority of the canon.
The opera “Relicário Perpétuo” by Luís Tinoco premieres next Wednesday at the Teatro Camões in Lisbon, under the musical direction of conductor Joana Carneiro, concluding the commemorations of the 5th Centenary of Luís Vaz de Camões.
