For 2026–27, Nashville Opera trades safe programming for a season with the kind of wardrobe-change energy fashion editors dream about: a Roman thriller in sumptuous traditional dress, a neon-bright superhero fever dream with 1980s attitude, and a powdered-wig comedy where the women deliver the sharpest moves in the room.

Tosca, arriving October 8 and 10, 2026 at TPAC Jackson Hall, opens the season in full cinematic mode. Nashville Opera describes the Puccini classic as a deadly night in Rome, and the appeal is as much about atmosphere as plot: hand-painted Italian sets, cathedral-scale emotion, and a heroine who moves through love, danger, and political intrigue with unmistakable diva force. If this season has a couture opener, this is it—tailored in velvet, shadow, and operatic excess.

Then the company swerves—in the best possible way—into Fortuna the Time Bender vs. The Schoolgirls of Doom, a world premiere playing November 13, 14, and 15, 2026 at The Studio at the Noah Liff Opera Center. According to Nashville Opera, the production mixes opera, Broadway, Hollywood, Gilbert & Sullivan, and an unapologetic hit of 1980s flair, all powered by comic-book energy and a live rock band. Think cult fashion fantasy meets downtown performance art: eccentric, irreverent, and fully committed to the bit.

Closing the season on April 15 and 17, 2027 at TPAC Jackson Hall, The Marriage of Figaro returns after a decade away with all the lush visual promise of an 18th-century editorial spread. Nashville Opera positions Mozart’s comedy as a world of powdered wigs, romantic chaos, and social gamesmanship, but the real style icons here are Susanna and the Countess, the women who outmaneuver everyone else with intelligence, precision, and impeccable timing. It’s aristocratic glamour with a knowing wink.

Taken together, the lineup reads less like a conventional season rollout and more like a cultural mood board: classic tragedy, graphic-novel camp, and rococo comedy, each with its own silhouette, texture, and attitude. For audiences who like their arts coverage with a side of spectacle, Nashville Opera’s next chapter looks ready for the spotlight.