Glimmerglass Announces Casting for 2026 Season
COOPERSTOWN—The Glimmerglass Festival recently announced casting for its 2026 season, July 10 through August 17, featuring a roster of artists celebrated by critics for their vocal excellence, dramatic insight and musical intelligence. As the nation approaches its 250th anniversary, the festival’s 2026 season explores America’s evolving identity through grand musical theater, opera classics, contemporary works and reinterpretations, and a major new regional collaboration, officials said in press release issued on January 26.
“Glimmerglass is a place where you can experience performers at the very peak of their international game as well as meet the next generation of rising stars—singers you will see in the spotlight at the Met or on Broadway in years to come,” said Rob Ainsley, Glimmerglass Festival artistic and general director.
Leading the season are Shereen Pimentel and Michael Adams, starring opposite one another as Laurey Williams and Curly McLain in Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma!” In “Madame Butterfly,” internationally acclaimed soprano Eri Nakamura joins the festival in one of her signature roles as Cio-Cio-San, joined by Eric Taylor, the 2024 winner of the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition. The season also includes Colin Aikins and Joseph Lattanzi, whose performances in “Fellow Travelers” have been praised for their emotional immediacy and dramatic clarity, officials said.
“All of our casts this season are singers who understand that opera and musical theater are fundamentally about storytelling…”
—Rob Ainslie
The festival’s 2026 production of “Così” features a standout ensemble led by Amanda Batista, a recent graduate of the Metropolitan Opera’s prestigious Lindemann Young Artist Development Program; Michelle Mariposa, winner of the 2025 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition; Travon Walker, a member of Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Ryan Center; and 2026 Hupper Family Festival Artists Gregory Feldmann and Keely Futterer. They are joined by bass-baritone Kevin Burdette, who also serves as Artist-in-Residence for the 2026 season.
The jazz-infused satire “Happy End” stars Ana Karneža, winner of the 2024 Kurt Weill Foundation’s Lotte Lenya Competition, whose performances have been described as fearless, stylish, and vocally commanding. “Happy End” is presented as part of a new collaborative partnership between The Glimmerglass Festival, Opera Saratoga, Finger Lakes Opera, and the Seagle Festival, with performances touring to communities across New York State and Western Massachusetts, and presented in the Glimmerglass Pavilion.
“All of our casts this season are singers who understand that opera and musical theater are fundamentally about story-telling—about listening, responding and connecting. These casts bring tremendous humanity and collaborative spirit to works that ask urgent questions about who we are as a nation and as individuals,” Ainsley said.
