Operafest 2025 Lisboa & Oeiras

August 7 to de September 16

"Forbidden Love"

Operafest Lisbon and Oeiras is back for its 6th edition with "Forbidden Love", debuting as an opera stage the Convento da Cartuxa, in Caxias!

 

Operafest Lisboa e Oeiras, led by soprano Catarina Molder and produced by Ópera do Castelo, is back from 7 AUG to 16 SEP, in its 6th edition!

Lisbon and Oeiras will resonate opera for everyone, under the theme of "Forbidden Love" with great classics, inedited, premieres and much more, in new programming partners, which will expand the festival to the greater Lisbon area.

"La Traviata" by Verdi and "Operatic Rave", at the Convento da Cartuxa, in Caxias, "Dido and Aeneas" by Purcell, at the Aula Magna and marking the presence of baroque opera for the first time at the festival. The national premiere of the opera "Julie" by Belgian composer Philippe Boemans, based on "Miss Julie" by August Strindberg, at Culturgest. The return of Mozart's "The Magic Flute" for the whole family, at Olga Cadaval Cultural Center, to be filmed for RTP2 and also workshops, conferences and Cine-opera at the Cinemateca Portuguesa, celebrating Camilo Castelo Branco on the two hundredth anniversary of his birth!

The festival, born during the pandemic, with unprecedented results in attracting and retaining audiences for opera, has established itself as one of the most "outside the box" European festivals and a showcase for national talent, combining tradition and avant-garde, which aims to continue bringing opera closer to today's world.

Exploring the subject of opera in a comprehensive way and focusing on renewal at all levels, it proposes a diverse summer program, to meet all audiences, under the theme of forbidden love, divided into cycles with different objectives and proposals: GREAT CLASSICS: "La Traviata" Verdi - 7, 9 and 10 AUG, Convento da Cartuxa, in Caxias, "Dido and Aeneas" Purcell - 29 and 30 AUG 2, Aula Magna; INEDITED "Julie" Phillipe Boesmans – 5 and 6 SEP, Culturgest; SATELLITE OPERA: "Operatic Rave", 8 AUG, Cartuxa Convent, Workshops & Conferences, El Corte Inglés Auditorium; CINE-OPERA 3 to 9 SEP Cinemateca Portuguesa; GREAT CLASSICS & PUBLIC OF THE FUTURE: "Mozart’s Magic Flute" – 12 and 13 SEP, Olga Cadaval Cultural Center.

Welcome to Operafest and the tragic world of opera!