Celebrate love in all its guises—sensual, humorous, chaste, and tragic—through tender ballads, amorous duets, cheeky verses, and bawdy drinking songs, all led by Nic McGegan, Music Director Laureate of the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, renowned for his musical wit. Savor food, craft cocktails, and wine in homage to Bacchus.  In Washington DC, wine will be provided by 2023 Michelin-guide Washington, DC Sommelier of the Year Sarah Thompson (Queen’s English). In New York City, signature cocktails will be provided by noted NY mixologist Alex Dominguez (Bar Calico).

Queen of Hearts

Georgia Room

St. Francis Hall

All Tickets are Mobile Ticket Only. Mobile Tickets are like Print-at-Home tickets but instead of having to print off the tickets yourself, you can just show the barcode on your mobile phone. It is the easiest way to access tickets to your events. For more information visit Ticketmaster.co.nz/mobileticket Child Policy: Recommended 15+. May contain course language and adult themes. All patrons must hold a ticket for entry. Comedy superstar John Bishop is set to return to Australia & New Zealand with his new show John Bishop: 25, to celebrate his incredible 25-year career. John Bishop said: "I can't believe it will be 25 years since I first performed at the Frog and Bucket in Manchester. It's been a rollercoaster! And I can't thank the fans enough who have supported me all the way. I really hope you can come and celebrate with me."

John Bishop - 25 Years of Stand Up

Dunedin Town Hall

Purcell’s ground-breaking opera makes its long-awaited Opera Lafayette debut. Mary Elizabeth Williams returns to Opera Lafayette as Dido, the ill-fated Queen of Carthage, following her internationally lauded performance in last season’s Morgiane. The famously haunting aria “When I Am Laid in Earth” brings the resilient Dido to a crossroad in this woman-centered storyline, delivering an unforgettable saga of love, loss, power, and humanity.

EPSG:4326

Dido and Aeneas

El Museo del Barrio

Sixth & I

Can you imagine a time before there was Opera Lafayette? Difficult as it may seem, the nation’s oldest period instrument opera company was once only the speck of an idea in the mind of a visionary young violinist, Ryan Brown. Leading the first concert performing French Baroque chamber music in the Corcoran Gallery’s magnificent Salon Doré in 1995, Maestro Brown has built Opera Lafayette into a major cultural force, celebrated from the American shores all the way to the theatre at Versailles. This concert will focus on the music, the musicians, and the composers that Ryan Brown has championed and elevated during his 30-year tenure as Artistic Director. Help us rejoice in the rich and consequential history of The Nation’s Period Opera Company made possible through the revolutionary vision of Ryan Brown.

Featuring:
Opera Lafayette Chamber Orchestra
Paulina Francisco, soprano
Jonathan Taylor Ward, bass-baritone
James Reese, tenor**
And more

*This performance season is an external rental presented in coordination with the Kennedy Center Campus Rentals Office and is not produced by the Kennedy Center.

RE | JOICE:  30 Years of Ryan Brown at Opera Lafayette

St. Bartholomew Church

John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

Did you know that the first complete opera by a Black American has been hidden in a single manuscript for over 130 years? Edmond Dédé, a fourth-generation free person of color born in 1827 New Orleans, had an incredibly successful career as a conductor and composer in Bordeaux, France, writing nearly 100 critically and popularly acclaimed works for the French stage. His magnum opus, however—a four act French grand opera on themes from Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves—had yet to receive a premiere at the time of his death, and languished, unrecognized, in private collections and libraries for over a century.

RE | STORE:  Edmond Dédé’s  Morgiane

Lincoln Theatre, Washington

The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center

Jazz At Lincoln Center

This groundbreaking program seeks to examine the question of “who owns culture?” through a two-part music and dance exploration. 

The first half of the program will feature two extraordinary artists, tenor Karim Sulayman and guitarist Sean Shibe, performing music from their award-winning album “Broken Branches.” Sulayman and Shibe’s program weaves baroque music of Giulio Caccini and Claudio Monteverdi with traditional Sephardic and Arab/Andalusian works and ballads by contemporary composers and singers from Egypt and Lebanon, and frames the program with songs of Purcell and Britten.

RE | CLAIM:  Ensemble Amedyez and Kalanidhi Dance 

This orchestral concert with vocalists includes works by Jean-Baptiste Moreau (1656-1733) and George Frederic Handel (1685-1759), both connected to French dramatist Jean Racine’s play Esther, based on the Old Testament story. Moreau wrote the incidental music for Racine’s Esther, which was first performed at Maintenon’s school for girls in 1689, while Handel’s version is known to be his first English oratorio. The concert will be co-directed by harpsichordist Justin Taylor and Opera Lafayette Artistic Associate Jonathan Woody (returning after his performance in Couperin le Grand).

From Saint-Cyr to Cannons: Moreau and Handel's Esther

St. Peter’s Church

Join us for the modern premiere of an opéra-ballet that broke the mold for its time by putting contemporary characters on stage. True to its innovative roots, this present-day retelling cleverly swaps the original muses' debate over the qualities of comedy and tragedy for composers, librettists, and choreographers debating which of their art forms garners the best reviews!

With renowned conductor Christophe Rousset on the podium and Catherine Turocy directing, this witty, joyful, female-centric tale will have you laughing and cheering until the end. Thalie promises to uphold Opera Lafayette’s reputation as "one of the most creatively game and artistically sound operations in the business."(The Washington Post). 

Mouret's Les Fêtes de Thalie

Kennedy Center

This chamber music concert is devoted to the work of François Couperin (1668-1733) and his contemporaries who were influential in the time of Madame de Maintenon. The concert will feature the acclaimed harpsichordist and conductor Christophe Rousset (founder and director of one of France's most distinguished early music ensembles, Les Talens Lyriques) making his Opera Lafayette harpsichord debut in a concert including Opera Lafayette Artistic Associates Jacob Ashworth, violin and Jonathan Woody, and with Immanuel Davis, flute, and Joshua Keller, viol. The repertoire will include Ariane consolée par Bacchus, a Couperin cantata recently discovered by Rousset, in addition to works by Montéclair, and Clérambault.

 Couperin le Grand 

The Kosciuszko Foundation

Composers Marianna Martines and Maria Antonia Walpurgis defied 18th-century convention by putting women front and center. GRAMMY-nominated soprano Lauren Snouffer takes the stage in this daring solo performance reawakening Talestri, Queen of the Amazons, and Berenice, Princess of Egypt. Lauren also shines in bravura arias by Gluck and J.C. Bach, written for the era’s fiercest rival to the soprano: the castrato, a castrated male singer.  The storied Opera Lafayette Orchestra completes this program with Haydn’s Symphony 63, “Roxelana,” an instrumental work celebrating the Sultana of the Ottoman Empire.

Opera Lafayette

Apr 30 - May 2, 2026

New Woman

12 - 14 Feb, 2026

Queen of Hearts

Nov 18, 2025

John Bishop - 25 Years of Stand Up

Opera Lafayette