The Glimmerglass Festival’s exhilarating 50th anniversary season centers artists and creators, celebrates opera and musical theater legends, and introduces a thrilling world premiere opera based on a beloved book.

Mainstage productions will include Tosca (Puccini/Illica & Giacosa), Sunday in The Park With George (Sondheim/Sondheim & Lapine), The Rake’s Progress (Stravinsky/Auden & Kallman), the World Premiere of The House on Mango Street (Bermel/Cisneros), based on the classic book. The Festival is also proud to bring former Artistic Director Francesca Zambello’s acclaimed original production of Odyssey (Moore/Rourke) to the Alice Busch Opera Theater for the first time.

Schedule

August 10, 2025

2026 Preview Brunches

11:00am

Get a sneak peek of the 2026 Festival season from Artistic & General Director Rob Ainsley and members of the 2025 Resident Artists Program while you enjoy a delicious brunch catered by The Horned Dorset. Menus are available in the spring; vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free options are always available.

TICKETS - $65 per person

VENUE - Pavilion

The House on Mango Street

1:00pm

Music: Bermel

Libretto: Cisneros & Bermel

The House on Mango Street, a coming-of-age classic, has been acclaimed by critics, beloved by readers of all ages, taught in schools and universities alike, and translated around the world. Novelist Sandra Cisneros, winner of the PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature, has teamed up with Grammy-nominated composer Derek Bermel for an opera inspired by her classic book, which unfolds in a series of episodes seen through the eyes of a young girl. Through a series of interactions, which range from fascinating to funny to frightening, she comes to understand that storytelling is the medicine she can offer her community — and herself.

Conductor | Nicole Paiement

Director | Chía Patiño

Set Designer | John Conklin

Costume Designer | Erik Teague

Lighting Designer | Amith Chandrashaker

Dramaturg | Kelley Rourke

Projections Designer | Greg Emetaz

Hair & Make-Up | Tom Watson

Generously Sponsored by | Nellie and Robert Gipson

Sunday in The Park With George

7:30pm

Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim

Book by James Lapine

Originally Directed on Broadway by James Lapine

Orchestrations by Michael Starobin

Originally Produced on Broadway by The Shubert Organization and Emanuel Azenberg

By arrangement with Playwrights Horizons, Inc. New York City which produced the original production of Sunday in The Park With George in 1983.

Inspired by Georges Seurat’s groundbreaking painting, Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, this musical is a meditation on the artistic process, seen through the eyes of Georges Seurat in 1884 and an imagined great-grandson, also an artist, in 1984. Nominated for 10 Tony Awards and Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Sondheim’s innovative score explores pointillism in sound before opening out into one of the most glorious choral finales in the repertory.

This production of Sunday in The Park With George was licensed by Music Theatre International.

Conductor | Michael Ellis Ingram

Conductor (August 17 Performance Only) | Luke Poeppel

Director | Ethan Heard

Set Designer | John Conklin

Costume Designer | Beth Goldenberg

Lighting Designer | Amith Chandrashaker

Movement Director | Madison Hertel

Projections Designer | Greg Emetaz

Sound Designer | Joel Morain

Hair & Makeup Designer | Tom Watson

Generously Sponsored by | Ted Snowdon and Duffy Violante

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