The 6th edition of Operafest 2025 revolves around love - this overwhelming force that "burns unseen" and moves human existence.
The programme for this edition addresses several cases of "forbidden loves", haunted by illness and death, social class, duty and betrayal.

Between Oeiras and Lisbon, Operafest 2025 kicks off in Oeiras, in the perfect setting of the Convento da Cartuxa, in Caxias, which hosts the first opera and one of the greatest operas of all time: Verdi’s "La Traviata" (1853), based on Alexandre Dumas’ "Lady of the Camellias", about the courtesan who atones for her forbidden love with illness and death. The stigma of the lost woman, still so socially condemned today, with a luxury international cast, directed by actor and director David Pereira Bastos, under the baton of maestro Osvaldo Ferreira, accompanied by the Portuguese Philharmonic Orchestra.

Closing the night of retreat at the Convento da Cartuxa, an unexpected Operatic Rave. A celebration party that merges the world of opera with the world of pop, with performances by the unique Tó Trips & Fake Latinos, evoking their latest grand album "Dissidente", and also presenting us with revisitations of themes from the opera "La Traviata" and the opera "Dido and Aeneas" and Mozart’s "Magic Flute" with the participation of opera singers and also the modern-day dance band "Bateu Matou" and the urban god DJ Marfox, always seasoned with a lot of opera.

In a second half, in a new epicentre of the capital - the imposing Aula Magna of the University of Lisbon, the Baroque universe echoes for the first time at Operafest. "Dido and Aeneas" (1688), one of Henry Purcell’s masterpieces, evoking the tragic love of the Queen of Carthage for the Trojan hero, Aeneas. The intricacies of love, abandonment and death with the most contrasting music that goes from one of the most desolate and beautiful laments in the history of music, to musical moments of euphoria, passion, dance and humour, with the Músicos do Tejo and a great cast, under the stage direction of the celebrated Portuguese dancer and choreographer Rui Horta.

In the inedited cycle, a new programming partner, Culturgest, proposes the long-awaited national premiere of the opera "Julie" (2005), by the Belgian composer Philippe de Boesmans, who left us in 2022, and a masterpiece of the 21st century, based on the play "Menina Júlia", by the Swedish playwright August Strinberg.
On the eve of Saint John's Day, on the same night that her engagement is broken off, Julie seduces the count's valet, her father. A struggle of classes and sexes, in which the strongest social bond loses. A powerful reflection on what moves human beings, on what imprisons and liberates them, with extraordinary musical virtuosity and colour, starring the charismatic French mezzo-soprano Julia Deit-Ferrand, with staging and set design by German director Daniela Kerck, recently acclaimed for her remarkable staging of Puccini’s "Turandot", which is making its Portuguese debut here. The musical direction is by maestro Bruno Borralhinho, accompanied by the ensemble Beyra, in a co-production with Artway.

The Opera XXI Marathon – a competition and platform for contemporary opera, also focuses on training and professionalization with the workshops "The liberation of sound" – Alexander technique for musicians and singers with Eleni Vosniadou, a free course aimed at composers and writers – "Journey into the world of the libretto" and the workshops "The secrets of the voice" and "A stone in the shoe" – composing for opera", aimed at composers and librettists and also the Conferences "Opera and Forbidden Love" by Rui Vieira Nery and "Opera & Literature", a journey through the great operas of the 20th and 21st centuries that were born from books, by Paulo Ferreira de Castro, within âmbito cultural El Corte Inglés.

The Cine-Opera cycle in partnership with the Cinemateca Portuguesa, around the multiple contagions between cinema and opera and of course focusing on the theme of forbidden love, proposes unbeatable film versions of great classics of this edition, such as "La Traviata" by Franco Zefirelli (1982), starring Teresa Stratas and Plácido Domingo, the enigmatic "Bluebeard's Castle", by director Michael Powell (1963) the only opera and masterpiece by the Hungarian composer, Belà Bartók. "Miss Julie" by Alf Sjöberg (1951), evoking "Menina Júlia" by Strinberg and celebrating the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of Camilo Castelo Branco, one of the most extraordinary Portuguese novelists of all time: "Day of Despair" by Manuel de Oliveira (1992).

Finally, closing Operafest 2025 on a high note, in a new partnership with the Olga Cadaval Cultural Centre, the most-watched opera ever, "The Magic Flute" by the brilliant W. A. ​​Mozart (1791), for children of all ages. After its success in 2023, the equally "magical" staging by Mónica Garnel, with a top Portuguese cast, which delighted audiences and critics, is back in the Portuguese version by Alexandre Delgado, and will also be filmed for RTP2!

Welcome to Operafest and the tragic world of opera!