Fort Worth Opera will present “Cowboys & Culture,” a multimedia concert celebrating the music, stories and spirit of the American West on Feb. 5, 2026, at the Kimbell Art Museum’s Renzo Piano Pavilion.

The evening will be presented during the closing week of the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo and will feature acclaimed dramatic tenor Clifton Forbis. He will be joined by soprano Melissa Martinez, mezzo-soprano Madeline Coffey, tenor Coleman Dziedzic, and bass-baritone José Olivares.

The evening will showcase projected artwork by contemporary Western painter Kevin Chupik and Fort Worth Opera Producing Director Kurt Howard will interview Chupik live onstage.

The evening’s musical program includes Western-themed operatic repertoire and American works, with selections from Puccini’s “La Fanciulla del West,” Craig Bohmler and Steven Mark Kohn’s “Riders of the Purple Sage,” and Héctor Armienta’s “Zorro.”

In a statement Angela Turner Wilson, General and Artistic Director of Fort Worth Opera said, “As the Opera marks its 80th season, we wanted to embrace all of Fort Worth in the celebration. ’Cowboys & Culture’ isn’t just a slogan here, it’s what we’ve always been: proud of our Western heritage, and proud of the artistic tradition that has grown alongside it for generations.”

Forbis added, “Before my day and anybody else’s, there were traveling companies going from city to city doing shows. And it’s not just back then. Opera isn’t this rare thing that only exists in some far-off world. Even for the performers, most of us are just normal folks. One of my favorite things about working festival season at the Met was going down to the canteen and seeing friends you haven’t seen in a year, just sitting and having lunch. It’s like coming home, right there in the biggest city.”

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