Name: Happy End
Start: 2026-07-31T16:30:00
Location: Alice Busch Opera Theater of Cooperstown

Glimmerglass Festival

Rodgers & Hammerstein’s beloved musical returns to the Alice Busch Opera Theater in a bold new production directed by Francesca Zambello and conducted by James Lowe. Set on the cusp of statehood, Oklahoma! celebrates the dreams and complexities of settlers forging new lives on the frontier. This fresh staging evokes both the grandeur of the American landscape and the optimism of the artists who created the work as World War II raged. Oklahoma! is many things: a landmark of musical theater, a grand love story, and an invitation to reflect on the promise of America.

Oklahoma!

Alice Busch Opera Theater of Cooperstown 

Francesca Zambello’s acclaimed production of Madame Butterfly returns to Glimmerglass, directed by Joshua Horowitz and conducted by Joseph Colaneri. This elegant, visually stunning staging presents a nuanced examination of the American presence in Japan and the cultural collision at the heart of Puccini’s timeless masterpiece.

Madame Butterfly

Happy End

Continuing Glimmerglass’s proud tradition of sharing opera for and with young people, the 2026 season will feature a new production of Robin Hood, which Francesca Zambello commissioned for the Festival and directed in 2017. When the law of the land is corrupt, what’s an honest citizen to do? In the absence of the King, the Sheriff has seized the country’s assets for himself and his cronies. Robin Hood is the unlikely leader of a band of ordinary folks doing their best to survive in the forest until just rule returns to the land. This season, Robin Hood will take the mainstage at the Alice Busch Opera Theater, giving local youth performers the opportunity to collaborate with Festival artists and creative teams. 

Robin Hood

A powerful song cycle inspired by real stories of early 20th-century immigrants, Vignettes: Ellis Island gives voice to those who passed through one of America’s most iconic gateways. Drawing on interviews from the Ellis Island Oral History Project, composer Alan Louis Smith brings to life the resilience, hope, and humanity at the heart of the immigrant experience through twenty deeply moving musical portraits.