OPERAFEST Lisboa

The new opera festival in town

19 August to 10 September 2022

Garden Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga

Emotion of opera to everyone

Destiny in Vertigo

After the success of its launch in the summer of 2020 and the following edition in 2021, with great public adhesion, excellent international critics, bringing and inedited dynamism to the Portuguese operatic scene and affirming itself as one most challenging out of the box European opera festivals, OPERAFEST LISBOA, directed by soprano Catarina Molder and produced by Ópera do Castelo, in partnership with National Museum of Ancient Art, is a proven reality and is back with a new edition in 2022, to bring the emotion of opera to everyone, from August 19th to September 10th, with the unique setting of the National Museum of Ancient Art Garden as its epicentre.
The idea of a Destiny you can not escape is Operasfest’s 2022 moto –It also proposes with humour, the going back of the mask to the world of phantasy and disguise, opening and closing this year’s program, with contrasting masked balls.

From the great classics to the avant-garde opera, in a summer program, comprehensive to reach all audiences, it bets on the opera of the future, new creators, new interpreters, and national talent and wants to bring opera closer to the public and the world of today!

A program divided into different cycles following particular objectives and committed to reaching varied types of audiences, divided into GREAT CLASSICS (A Masked Ball Verdi 19 – 26 AUG), INEDITED (American Evening: Labyrinth Menotti & A Hand of Bridge Baber 27 & 28 AUG and The Man of Dreams Chagas Rosa 10 SEP) 'new' explorations and visions around opera with OPERA SATELLITE (Lyric Machine, Workshops and Operatic Rave Masked ball to defy destiny, 10 SET ), 'MARATONA OPERA XXI (Opera Express for New Opera Directors and Minotaur João Ricardo in absolute premiere) and finally for the youngest ones AUDIENCE OF THE FUTURE (Jeremy Fisher Isabelle Aboulker 1, 2 and 3 SEP).

From the tragic destiny of forbidden love’s vengeance to the destiny each one of us carries in its own matrix, to human existence questions without answer, of the unavoidable pane, but also of joy and pleasure, Operafest’s opera is served with plenty of adrenaline!

Welcome to Operafest Lisboa and to the tragic world of opera!

Ecos na imprensa Operafest Lisboa 2021:

“Madama Butterfly em Lisboa ou a Borboleta do Tejo”, by Stephane Lelièvre for Bachtrack

“Festivais de Verão - Operafest 21: A Médium em Lisboa, mesa giratória à beira do Tejo", by Pierre Brévignon for Première Log

“Médium encantadora no Operafest em Lisboa”, by Stephane Lelièvre for Bachtrack