Berkshire Opera Festival
Announces 2026 Season
By: BOF - Dec 02, 2025
Berkshire Opera Festival (BOF) announces its 2026 summer season under the vision of Co-founders Brian Garman (William E. Briggs Artistic Director) and Jonathon Loy (Director of Production), and new President and CEO Natalie Johnsonius Neubert. In its 11th year, the company remains unique in the culturally rich Berkshires for producing opera at the highest level.
This season, Berkshire Opera Festival proudly launches the company's Resident Artist Program with its inaugural fully staged production of the rarely-heard 18th-century gem Beauty and the Beast (Zémire et Azor) by André Grétry, while anchoring the season with a grand mainstage Lucia di Lammermoor—positioning BOF as a national model for a regional company that both fosters emerging artists and delivers world-class opera.
In BOF's Resident Artist Program, the artists don't just sing in the chorus or cover roles, but perform leading roles in a full production this July—in addition to understudying leading roles in BOF’s mainstage production in August, and performing in duo recitals, private salon performances, and public master classes. The program will feature five artists this first season (selected from a competitive pool of 600 applicants), allowing for highly personalized training and individual attention.
Headed by Lynn Baker, the Resident Artist Program is a perfect way to identify opera’s next generation of stars while simultaneously broadening BOF’s repertoire and presence in the community.
Brian Garman, BOF Artistic Director and Co-founder, says: "As BOF enters its second decade, we're very excited to announce a major new expansion of our programming, which is the addition of our Resident Artist Program. I've been eager to create this program for several years, and I'm thrilled for it to become a reality next summer. As their inaugural production, the Resident Artists will present Grétry's delightful and touching adaptation of the Beauty and the Beast tale entitled Zémire et Azor. This will serve as the ideal prelude to our mainstage production, which is perhaps the most celebrated bel canto opera of all — Donizetti's towering Lucia di Lammermoor. It's an opera that demands the very greatest singers, and that's exactly what we have in store for you!"
BOF President and CEO Natalie Johnsonius Neubert says: "We’re thrilled to share Berkshire Opera Festival’s 2026 season—a year that truly shows what opera can be. From the sweeping drama of our mainstage production Lucia di Lammermoor, to the intimate beauty of Schubert’s Winterreise, and the fresh energy of our Resident Artists performing in Beauty and the Beast, this season celebrates the power of these masterpieces and the promise of the next generation of artists—offering something meaningful for everyone in our community and beyond."
BOF's 2026 mainstage opera is a new production of Gaetano Donizetti's LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR, the crown jewel of bel canto opera. Set amid the foggy moors and ancient castles of Scotland, Donizetti’s masterpiece tells the tragic story of Lucia, whose forbidden love for her family’s sworn enemy drives her to the brink of madness. When her brother forces her into a loveless marriage, Lucia’s heart—and mind—shatter in one of opera’s most unforgettable scenes. Renowned for its breathtaking drama and virtuosic singing, Lucia di Lammermoor remains one of the most celebrated works in the operatic canon, a timeless showcase of the full power and passion of the human voice.
Conducted and directed by BOF's Co-founders Brian Garman and Jonathon Loy, three performances take place at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington—the perfectly sized theater for unamplified voices.
In the lead role of Lucia is soprano Christine Lyons, winner of the 2025 Princess Grace Award, and described by Broadway World as "a true virtuosa, dazzling us with her mastery of all those Bel Canto coloratura fireworks." She returns to the BOF stage after performing in the company's 2025 gala and the role of Echo in the company's 2017 production of Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos. Opposite Lyons as Edgardo is Terrence Chin-Loy, whom Opera News described as having a "beautiful lyric tenor voice." Chin-Loy has recently performed with the Metropolitan Opera, Los Angeles Opera, and Arizona Opera. In the role of Enrico is Dean Murphy, a leading singer at the Deutsche Oper Berlin whom Online Merker described as a "dazzling American baritone." Raimondo is played by Stefan Egerstrom, a regular artist at Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Metropolitan Opera. And, in the role of Arturo is Jordan Costa, an alumnus of the Yale and Eastman Schools of Music.