Nashville Opera announces its upcoming season today, and the lineup pairs tried and true favorites with two compelling 20th century works. 

The season opens with Puccini’s iconic Madame Butterfly, featuring a return performance from Cuban-American soprano Elizabeth Caballero as Cio-Cio-San. Caballero has previously performed the title role in Daniel Catán’s Florencia en el Amazonas with Nashville Opera. 

Gian Carlo Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors— which was the first opera composed for American television and premiered on NBC in 1951— revisits the story of the Magi and Nativity from the perspective of an imaginative young boy. With Nashville Opera offering three family-friendly performances, Amahl, like Nashville Ballet’s Nutcracker and Nashville Symphony’s Messiah, has the potential to grow into another beloved holiday tradition for the city. 

Nashville Opera’s first show of 2020 will be Benjamin Britten’s Turn of the Screw, which has all the trappings of a good ghost story: a governess (played by Lara Secord-Haid) hired by a mysterious man to care for two orphaned children. 

Verdi’s beloved Rigoletto will finish the season and feature the talents of baritone Michael Mayes in the title role and coloratura soprano Kathryn Lewek, who has just finished her sixth season as The Met’s Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute, as Rigoletto’s daughter Gilda. 

Find the details for Nashville Operas upcoming season below: 

MADAME BUTTERFLY

• October 10, 2019, 7PM
• October 12, 2019, 8PM
• TPAC’s Jackson Hall 
• Music by Giocomo Puccini

AMAHL AND THE NIGHT VISITORS

• December 13, 2019, 8PM
• December 14 & 15, 2019, 4PM
• Noah Liff Opera Center 
• Music by Gian Carlo Menotti 

TURN OF THE SCREW

• January 24 & 25, 2020, 8PM
• January 26, 2020, 4PM
• Noah Liff Opera Center 
• Music by Benjamin Britten 

RIGOLETTO

• April 9, 2020, 7PM
• April 11, 2020, 8PM 
• Music by Giuseppe Verdi