The Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía is marking its 20th anniversary with three new opera productions (Faust, Luisa Miller, and Enemy of the People), a repertoire of 340 years of history—ranging from Marc-Antoine Charpentier, through Händel, Verdi, Gounod, Tchaikovsky, Strauss, and Puccini—to its very first world premiere, Enemy of the People by Francisco Coll, with some of the world’s top conductors leading the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana.
With the motto Per a descobrir (“To Discover”), the Season 2025–2026 presents an unparalleled program aimed at pleasing even the most critical public: ten operas, one zarzuela premiere, seven dance performances, ten great symphonic works led by world-class maestros, five Lied recitals, one evening devoted to the great lyrical repertoire, six Baroque sessions, five presentations of contemporary Valencian music, five flamenco nights, and two concerts devoted to world music.
On Hoy por Hoy Valencia, artistic director Jesús Iglesias and soprano Ruth Iniesta—who is opening the Les Arts season—talked about the anniversary. This is Iniesta’s sixth leading role in Les Arts, after Paris, Vienna, Naples, Sydney, Buenos Aires’ Teatro Colón, and, this year, Valencia. She is also closing the season with her debut at London’s Royal Opera House in La bohème.
For Iniesta, collaboration with the orchestra is always a guarantee of quality. For Iglesias, the season is ambitious and heterogeneous, welcoming different genres and styles while opera remains its mainstay. He also highlighted Valencian theater’s return to global production circuits, with three new productions in association with top European opera houses: La Scala in Milan, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, and the Madrid Teatro Real.
The Program
In line with the Per a descobrir motto, Les Arts starts its season outside the main venue with the tour of the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana (OCV) under the baton of Cornelius Meister. Concerts in Altea, Cullera, and Requena will lead up to the Open House concert on September 21 at the Calatrava building.
The opera season begins on October 3 with a new, ambitious production of Faust, which is under Les Arts’ leadership in co-production with La Scala of Milan and Berlin’s Staatsoper Unter den Linden. Directed by Johannes Erath, the production presents a fresh view of this iconic French opera.
Baroque music is served by Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s La descente d’Orphée aux enfers and Les Arts Florissants, Handel’s Orlando (concert version), and Giulio Cesare in Egitto (staged).
The world premiere of the institution’s first commissioned opera, Francisco Coll’s Enemy of the People, on November 5, 2025, will be a result of work with Madrid’s Teatro Real. The opera transposes Henrik Ibsen’s renowned play, merging Coll’s music with Àlex Rigola’s dramaturgy.
Giuseppe Verdi, a mainstay of Les Arts’ programming, will be represented by Luisa Miller, considered the prelude to his celebrated popular trilogy (Rigoletto, Il trovatore, La traviata). German repertoire appears with Richard Strauss’s hypnotic Salome, while Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin brings Russian opera to the stage. The season concludes with Puccini’s unfinished masterpiece, Turandot.
The zarzuela show has a new work, Un misterio de sainete o zarzuela a la cazuela, envisioned by director Enrique Viana with music written by Valencian composer José Serrano.
At the podium, Sir Mark Elder starts his term as principal conductor, accompanied by conductors like William Christie, James Gaffigan, Marc Minkowski, Lorenzo Viotti, and Timur Zangiev. Stage productions will include acclaimed directors Vincent Boussard, Valentina Carrasco, Johannes Erath, Damiano Michieletto, Àlex Ollé, Laurent Pelly, and Àlex Rigola.
The symphonic chapter (Les Arts és Simfònic) will be the longest in the theater’s history, featuring prominent conductors like Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Daniele Gatti, Gustavo Gimeno, Philippe Jordan, Fabio Luisi, Cornelius Meister, Javier Perianes, and Dima Slobodeniouk, along with Elder. They will perform Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony, Berlioz’s The Childhood of Christ, Brahms’ entire symphonies, and Beethoven’s entire piano concertos.
Dance is brought to life by seven performances, from classical ballet to contemporary dance and flamenco, by the Antonio Najarro Company, Kor’sia, Manuel Liñán Company, the Spanish National Dance Company, Antonio Ruz Company, Dortmund Ballet, and a new piece with Taiat Dansa at Festival Dansa València.
Five Lied recitals feature debuts from Angel Blue, Elsa Dreisig, Katharina Konradi, and Michael Spyres, and a return from Christian Gerhaher. Les Arts és Grans Veus invites Nadine Sierra to appear on a program of some of her signature pieces.
The Baroque and Early Music cycle offers ensembles and specialists like William Christie, Marc Minkowski, Vespres d’Arnadí with Serena Sáenz, María Espada, Les Épopées with Eva Zaïcik, and Il Fervore with Jone Martínez.
Other music performances are flamenco shows by Pitingo, Ángeles Toledano, Argentina, Juana la del Pipa, and Ismael de la Rosa “El Bola”; Afro-Cuban jazz by Chucho Valdés; and theatrical pop by Rufus Wainwright. There will also be a Valencian representation by Pau Alabajos, La Maria, Anna Millo, Pep Mirambell, Jonatan Penalba, and Urbàlia Rurana.
