The Kentucky Opera’s 2025-2026 season includes a mix of classic works, contemporary operas and retellings that combine the two.
“We plan our seasons, trying to think about everyone that we have in our community, and how we can offer a piece of opera for everyone,” General Director and CEO Barbara Lynne Jamison said. “No matter how you're coming into the art form, you feel welcome and like you have a great time.”
Performances of classics like Giuseppe Verdi's “La Traviata,” an adaption of Jacques Offenbach's “La Périchole” entitled “Songbird” and several contemporary works are included.
The season kicks off with concerts that highlight the stories of oppressed people.
Amplify Songs of Remembrance commemorates 80 years since the liberation of the Terezín concentration camp. It features songs that speak to the struggles Jewish people have faced.
While Amplify Songs of Justice commemorates Juneteenth, the show came about following the police killing of Breonna Taylor. The Kentucky Opera commissioned several songs to showcase the stories and strength of Black Americans.
“It's a wonderful way, I think, to put the welcome mat out and help people know that they are welcome here,” Jamison said.
Louisville Metro Council Member Paula McCraney, a District 7 Democrat, wrote the lyrics for some of the featured songs. Jorell Williams composed the music.
“[Jamison] contacted me because she knew that in the past, I had written five plays, and when she heard about that, she assumed that I could write music,” McCraney said.
McCraney took the challenge in stride. During the writing process, she was inspired by experiences she had as a council member during the 2020 racial justice protests.
“As civil unrest was unfolding, I would get phone calls or emails with my constituents’ concerns, and they were asking me questions because, of course, they knew I was a Black female,” McCraney said. “They wanted to understand what the civil unrest was all about.”
Her songs look at how allies can find their place in civil rights protests and demonstrations.
“How they could become an ally, or how they had to kind of reconcile with what was going on and where they fit into the whole puzzle,” McCraney said.
In an environment becoming increasingly hostile towards diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, Jamison said shows that talk about the experience of marginalized people might “hit differently” next season.
“We look at history. We look at the millennia. There have always been people who have oppressed other people, and they do it in different ways, in different places,” Jamison said. “I think being committed to [diversity] at all times, and then being aware and awake on how to do it in this moment, so that we don't rest on our laurels, is what's most important.”
Next season also features youth performances with members of the Youth Opera Project, which encourages youth from ages 8 to 18 who meet after school and practice to perform together, performing in Amplify Songs of Remembrance and doing a full youth performance of “Robin Hood.”
Jamison said the opera company wants to create a space where children and young performers feel empowered but are also protecting their voices.
“We encourage these kids to sing with a healthy singing voice in a way that they would with when they would sing out on a playground or at their school, in their school choir. It's just a healthy singing voice, and we don't expect them to sound like opera singers,” Jamison said.
The Kentucky Opera Center for Cultural Health, at 7th and Magazine Streets, will be home to all of this season's performances. It’s the first time the opera has held an entire season of shows at their home base since acquiring the building.
“We've gotten great reviews from our audiences about how they feel it's intimate, that the seats are comfortable, that parking is so easy, that it's easy to get here off the interstate,” Jamison said.
She said the operas for this season will be smaller in scale due to the space but will not be any less powerful.
Check out the full season line-up below:
Amplify Songs of Remembrance
- May 18, 2025
Amplify Songs of Justice: Commemorating Juneteenth
- June 19, 2025
“La Traviata”
- Nov. 7 and 9, 2025
“All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914”
- Dec. 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, and 21, 2025
“Songbird”
- Feb. 13 and 15, 2026
“Scalia/Ginsburg”
- April 10 and 12, 2026
“Robin Hood”
- June 6 and 7, 2026
This story has been updated with additional information.
Correction: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Barbara Lynne Jamison’s name.
