Opera Parallele may have closed its current season with Doubt, but there’s zero doubt about the company’s artistic success and importance. Its 2026–2027 will feature talented creators mining contemporary drama for musical gold.
Company Founder and Artistic Director Nicole Paiement said of the upcoming season, that it “reflects that mission in three very different but equally compelling works that speak to identity, resilience, spirituality, and the enduring power of human connection.” It also testifies to the vibrant American contemporary opera scene, which is pouring out streams of worthwhile music dramas in all kinds of idioms.
The company’s first show, opening Nov. 14–21, will be the world premiere of Salt & Spirit, a new theatrical work rooted in the musical traditions of the Gullah-Geechee people of the Carolinas. The production draws on a rare collection of resurfaced Gullah spirituals from the late 19th century, reimagining ancestral songs through a contemporary theatrical lens that blends classical, jazz, and traditional influences.
Developed and performed by tenor Victor Ryan Robertson and arranger/pianist Adrianne Duncan from their song cycle, Gullah Meditations, Salt & Spirit is being expanded as a theatrical experience in collaboration with Opera Parallèle Creative Director Brian Staufenbiel.
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is slated to receive its West Coast premiere in March 2027. It’s an opera by composer Joby Talbot and librettist Gene Scheer based on the 1997 memoir by journalist Jean-Dominique Bauby. After a massive stroke, unable to move or speak, except for blinking his left eye, he dictates his memoir letter by letter through blinks.
Talbot is the composer of the graphic novel-opera Everest, one of Opera Parallèle’s great successes. This follow-up premiered at Dallas Opera in 2023 and will be heard in a newly commissioned chamber orchestration by Ben Foskett and conducted by Paiement.
The last show of the season, in May 2027, is scheduled to be Kamala Sankaram and Jerre Dye’s one-act chamber opera Taking Up Serpents. Kayla, a 25-year-old woman, is informed that her father, a fire-and-brimstone Pentecostal preacher, has been dangerously bitten by one of his snakes and lies dying in a hospital. As the composer puts it, “Kayla’s journey home forces her to confront her troubled upbringing.”
Sankaram’s eclectic folk-inspired score has been critically praised and the opera has had three professional productions, including its 2019 premiere at Washington National Opera, and subsequent performances at The Glimmerglass Festival and Chicago Opera Theater. Opera Parallele’s new production will be created and directed by Staufenbiel and conducted by Paiement.
