Opera Grand Rapids Reveals 'East Meets Midwest' 2025-26 Season

Opera Grand Rapids (OGR) has announced its trailblazing 2025-2026 season during the “A Night with the Opera: Hip Opera” gala, held Thursday evening at GLC Live at 20 Monroe.

Themed “East Meets Midwest: Celebrating Asian Brilliance and Artists from Michigan,” this milestone season marks a historic chapter in the company's evolution. Guided by Guest Artistic Director Mo Zhou – an internationally acclaimed stage director and faculty member at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance – the season spotlights the dynamic intersection of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) artistry and Midwestern creativity.

Opera Grand Rapids' 25/26 Season:

H.M.S. Pinafore

By Gilbert and Sullivan

October 10 & 11, 2025 – Forest Hills Fine Arts Center

OGR kicks off the season with this beloved comic operetta classic, infused with clever satire, maritime mishaps, and infectious melodies. This fresh, theatrical reimagining will feature an all-Asian cast—offering a bold reinterpretation of the British classic through a modern, multicultural lens.

Stuck Elevator

By Byron Au Yong, libretto by Aaron Jafferis

February 20 & 21, 2026 – The Betty Van Andel Opera Center

A Michigan premiere and landmark production, Stuck Elevator recounts the harrowing real-life story of an undocumented Chinese immigrant trapped in a Bronx elevator for 81 hours. Melding opera, hip-hop, and spoken word, this genre-defying piece will be brought to life by a 100% AAPI artistic team under Zhou's visionary direction – marking a first for the work and a profound exploration of the immigrant experience and the invisible lives behind urban America

Madame Butterfly

By Giacomo Puccini

May 15 & 16, 2026 – DeVos Performance Hall

For the finale, OGR revisits its own legacy with a powerful new staging of Madame Butterfly, a work that helped put Grand Rapids on the national operatic map in 1907. More than a century later, the company reclaims and reimagines Puccini's iconic opera through an AAPI-centered perspective. This landmark production will also be Opera Grand Rapids' first-ever international co-production, in partnership with Calgary Opera (Canada) and Arizona Opera (U.S.), marking a monumental step for the company and a tribute to its growing national and international artistic reach.

Opera Grand Rapids' upcoming season continues its commitment to powerful, multi-ethnic storytelling, following its acclaimed production of Stinney: An American Execution. Just this week, the company earned a Michigan Emmy Award nomination for the cinematic capture of Stinney: An American Execution, produced in partnership with Blackmagic Design and Colvin Media. One of the first live operas ever filmed, this evocative work, composed by Frances Pollock with libretto by Tia Price, navigates the 1944 execution of George Stinney Jr., who was wrongfully accused of the rape and murder of two white girls in South Carolina. At just 14 years of age, Stinney remains today the youngest person executed in the U.S. in the 20th century. The film premiered nationally on PBS in June 2024 and will stream through June 2027.

“By undertaking this project, Opera Grand Rapids was able to elevate a story that needed to be told, in a medium that gave it poignancy and respect while uplifting emerging opera talent and fostering new works within the genre,” said Opera Grand Rapids Executive Director Emilee Syrewicze.

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