Great Barrington, MA — BERKSHIRE OPERA FESTIVAL (BOF) announces its 2026 summer season under the vision of Co-founders Brian Garman (William E. Briggs Artistic Director) and Jonathon Loy (Director of Production), and new President and CEO Natalie Johnsonius Neubert. In its 11th year, the company remains unique in the culturally rich Berkshires for producing opera at the highest level.
This season, Berkshire Opera Festival proudly launches the company’s Resident Artist Program with its inaugural fully staged production of the rarely-heard 18th-century gem Beauty and the Beast (Zémire et Azor) by André Grétry, while anchoring the season with a grand mainstage Lucia di Lammermoor—positioning BOF as a national model for a regional company that both fosters emerging artists and delivers world-class opera.
In BOF’s Resident Artist Program, the artists don’t just sing in the chorus or cover roles, but perform leading roles in a full production this July—in addition to understudying leading roles in BOF’s mainstage production in August, and performing in duo recitals, private salon performances, and public master classes. The program will feature five artists this first season (selected from a competitive pool of 600 applicants), allowing for highly personalized training and individual attention.
Headed by Lynn Baker, the Resident Artist Program is a perfect way to identify opera’s next generation of stars while simultaneously broadening BOF’s repertoire and presence in the community.
Brian Garman, BOF Artistic Director and Co-founder, says: “As BOF enters its second decade, we’re very excited to announce a major new expansion of our programming, which is the addition of our Resident Artist Program. I’ve been eager to create this program for several years, and I’m thrilled for it to become a reality next summer. As their inaugural production, the Resident Artists will present Grétry’s delightful and touching adaptation of the Beauty and the Beast tale entitled Zémire et Azor. This will serve as the ideal prelude to our mainstage production, which is perhaps the most celebrated bel canto opera of all — Donizetti’s towering Lucia di Lammermoor. It’s an opera that demands the very greatest singers, and that’s exactly what we have in store for you!”
BOF President and CEO Natalie Johnsonius Neubert says: “We’re thrilled to share Berkshire Opera Festival’s 2026 season—a year that truly shows what opera can be. From the sweeping drama of our mainstage production Lucia di Lammermoor, to the intimate beauty of Schubert’s Winterreise, and the fresh energy of our Resident Artists performing in Beauty and the Beast, this season celebrates the power of these masterpieces and the promise of the next generation of artists—offering something meaningful for everyone in our community and beyond.”
“The Berkshire Opera Festival has struck me with awe.”
— The New York Times
“No longer need we confine our opera-going to HD films—now we have the highest quality productions and performers in our own backyard.”
— Berkshire On Stage
LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR
berkshireoperafestival.org/luciadilammermoor
Music by Gaetano Donizetti
Libretto by Salvadore Cammarano
Saturday, August 22, 1pm
(Free pre-performance talk with dramaturg Cori Ellison at 12pm)
Tuesday, August 25, 7:30pm
Friday, August 28, 7:30pm
Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, 14 Castle Street, Great Barrington, MA
Approximate running time: 2 hours, 45 minutes including one intermission
Sung in Italian with projected English translations
Tickets start at $20
CAST
Soprano CHRISTINE LYONS – Lucia
Tenor TERRENCE CHIN-LOY – Edgardo
Baritone DEAN MURPHY – Enrico
Bass STEFAN EGERSTROM – Raimondo
Tenor JORDAN COSTA – Arturo
and featuring the
BERKSHIRE OPERA FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA AND CHORUS
CREATIVE TEAM
Conductor BRIAN GARMAN
Stage Director JONATHON LOY
Design team and more TBA
BOF’s 2026 mainstage opera is a new production of Gaetano Donizetti’s LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR, the crown jewel of bel canto opera. Set amid the foggy moors and ancient castles of Scotland, Donizetti’s masterpiece tells the tragic story of Lucia, whose forbidden love for her family’s sworn enemy drives her to the brink of madness. When her brother forces her into a loveless marriage, Lucia’s heart—and mind—shatter in one of opera’s most unforgettable scenes. Renowned for its breathtaking drama and virtuosic singing, Lucia di Lammermoor remains one of the most celebrated works in the operatic canon, a timeless showcase of the full power and passion of the human voice.
Conducted and directed by BOF’s Co-founders Brian Garman and Jonathon Loy, three performances take place at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington—the perfectly sized theater for unamplified voices.
In the lead role of Lucia is soprano Christine Lyons, winner of the 2025 Princess Grace Award, and described by Broadway World as “a true virtuosa, dazzling us with her mastery of all those Bel Canto coloratura fireworks.” She returns to the BOF stage after performing in the company’s 2025 gala and the role of Echo in the company’s 2017 production of Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos. Opposite Lyons as Edgardo is Terrence Chin-Loy, whom Opera News described as having a “beautiful lyric tenor voice.” Chin-Loy has recently performed with the Metropolitan Opera, Los Angeles Opera, and Arizona Opera. In the role of Enrico is Dean Murphy, a leading singer at the Deutsche Oper Berlin whom Online Merker described as a “dazzling American baritone.” Raimondo is played by Stefan Egerstrom, a regular artist at Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Metropolitan Opera. And, in the role of Arturo is Jordan Costa, an alumnus of the Yale and Eastman Schools of Music.
“Energetic maestro Brian Garman wrung every last magnificent,
sensuous drop out of a superb orchestra from start to finish.”
“Electrifying is an apt word for the dynamic, intentional staging
from director and co-founder Jonathon Loy.”
— The Berkshire Eagle
The inaugural Resident Artist production:
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST( ZÉMIRE ET AZOR)
berkshireoperafestival.org/beautyandthebeast
Music by André Ernest Modeste Grétry
Libretto by Jean-François Marmontel
Friday, July 31, 7:30pm
Sunday, August 2, 1:00pm
Venue TBA
Approximate running time: 2 hours, including one intermission
Sung in French with spoken English dialogue and projected English translations
Fully staged inaugural Resident Artist production
Tickets start at $20
CREATIVE TEAM
Conductor BRIAN GARMAN
Stage diretcor MO ZHOU
Design team TBA
CAST TBA
and featuring the
BERKSHIRE OPERA FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA
BOF’s Resident Artist Program opens its inaugural season with Beauty and the Beast (Zémire et Azor), André Grétry’s setting of the classic tale—reimagined in Berkshire Opera Festival’s new production in the shimmering yet morally fragile world of Gilded Age America. Zémire, daughter of the nouveau riche, longs for authenticity while Azor, an old-money recluse disfigured by an industrial accident, hides in a decaying mansion outside New York. When she offers herself to save her father, Zémire discovers Azor’s noble heart. Richly lyrical and emotionally expressive, the work celebrates love’s transformative power and the enduring truth that real beauty lies within.
The opera, written more than 200 years before Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, had its American premiere in New York in 1787. It was a tremendous success in its day but is seldom mounted today.
Beauty and the Beast will be directed by the exciting up-and-coming talent Mo Zhou,a visionary force in opera and theater, celebrated for her innovative and dynamic productions that transcend traditional boundaries. Last season, Zhou revived her acclaimed Madama Butterfly with Florentine Opera and Kentucky Opera and directed Così fan tutte at The Juilliard School and La Bohème at Arizona Opera. Her Madama Butterfly was described by Opera Canada as a “remarkably sensitive production” and “a hyper-relevant must-see,” and she was lauded for her “impressive and effective” attention to detail.
WINTERREISE
(THE WINTER JOURNEY)
berkshireoperafestival.org/winterreise
Music by Franz Schubert
Poems by Wilhelm Müller
Saturday, March 7, 2:00pm
Tanglewood’s Studio E, Linde Center for Music and Learning
3 West Hawthorne Road, Lenox, MA
A cycle of 24 songs
Approximate running time: 75 minutes
Sung in German with printed English translations
Tickets start at $20
ARTISTS
Barirone JARRETT PORTER
Pianist BRIAN GARMAN
A rejected lover. A frozen landscape. A profound loneliness. Hailed as the greatest song cycle ever written, Schubert’s Winterreise follows a wandering protagonist on his quest for comfort on a winter’s night. But this journey is not merely a trek through snow and ice; it is an intimate odyssey into the depths of the soul.American baritone Jarrett Porter, who is quickly garnering a reputation as a fearless talent with a vibrant lyric baritone and a commanding intellect, performs Schubert’s harrowing song cycle. Porter returns to Berkshire Opera Festival after singing Valentin in the 2024 mainstage production of Gounod’s Faust. Last summer, after an Opera Saratoga performance of She Loves Me, the Times Union raved: “Jarrett Porter as Georg made it into a tour de force. Porter’s definitive performance came from his core and was masculine, weighty and believable.” In other praise, Opera News has remarked on Porter’s “imposing baritone” and “supple vibrancy that he deploys with unaffected lyricism and manifest honesty.”
Porter is joined by BOF Artistic Director Brian Garman on piano as they take listeners on this cathartic and deeply moving journey.
BOF 2026 Calendar
March 7: Winterreise concert at Tanglewood
July 31 and August 2: Beauty and the Beast at venue TBA
August 22, 25, and 28: Lucia di Lammermoor at the Mahaiwe
August 22: Pre-show lecture by Cori Ellison before
Lucia di Lammermoor at the Mahaiwe
BOF looks forward to announcing additional educational and community outreach programs designed to deepen community engagement with its 2026 season.
ABOUT BERKSHIRE OPERA FESTIVAL
Founded in 2014 by Brian Garman and Jonathon Loy, Berkshire Opera Festival (BOF) is an opera company dedicated to its mission to entertain and enrich the lives of people of all ages and backgrounds throughout the Berkshire region by providing accessible and affordable performances of a broad range of operas with the highest artistic standards. Now in its 11th season, BOF has appointed Natalie Johnsonius Neubert as its first President and CEO, and presents programming that includes musically and dramatically compelling operatic productions each summer, as well as recitals, educational community programs, and other related musical events throughout the year. This year, BOF is proud to launch its Resident Artist Program, expanding opportunities for emerging artists and deepening the company’s investment in the future of opera. Recent mainstage productions include Verdi’s La Traviata, Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Puccini’s La Bohème, and Gounod’s Faust.