Opera Philadelphia and the Penn Museum are teaming up this fall for audiences to explore ancient Egypt through a multifaceted public engagement partnership.

The inaugural collaboration connects the Penn Museum’s 2026 opening of its newly transformed “Egypt Galleries: Life and Afterlife,” with Opera Philadelphia’s April 2027 production of Giuseppe Verdi’s “Aida,” creating opportunities for audiences of all ages to experience ancient Egypt through artifacts, music, scholarship, storytelling, and performance.

On Dec. 12, the Penn Museum will unveil the largest transformation in its 139-year history: the new Egypt Galleries, illuminating the stories of ancient Egyptians through 1,000 artifacts spanning 4,000 years. Four months later, Opera Philadelphia will bring Verdi’s “Aida” back to the Academy of Music for the first time in two decades, presenting a reimagined production.

In a statement Dr. Jennifer Houser Wegner, the Curator-in-Charge of the Egyptian Collection at the Penn Museum said, “Part of our goal is to humanize the ancient Egyptians. The individuals who made these artifacts—carved the stone, wrote on papyrus, and painted the statues—once had jobs, families, relationships, worries, celebrations, and dreams, just as we do today.  This collaboration opens up new and exciting ways for anyone, whether they are deeply knowledgeable or simply curious about ancient Egypt, to experience it through the fascinating yet relatable stories of people who lived along the Nile River 4,000 ago.”

The collaboration begins with the Penn Museum’s “Eternal Egypt Gala” on Nov 14, 2026, where a chorus of 16 singers and an instrumentalist led by Opera Philadelphia will perform throughout the evening. The musical program is inspired by the new galleries’ central themes of Life and Afterlife, echoing the ancient Egyptian belief that life was not only about thriving in the present, but also about preparing for an existence that would continue beyond death.

At the public opening of the Egypt Galleries on Dec. 12, Opera Philadelphia teaching artists from its Residency Program will take the stage in the Museum’s historic Harrison Auditorium. The teaching artists will lead a performance featuring the Triumphal Chorus from “Aida,” as well as two whimsical pieces to honor birds and cats, both sacred Egyptian symbols.

The partnership also comes full circle inside the new Egypt Galleries, where a permanent multimedia interactive installation explores ancient Egypt’s enduring influence on Greater Philadelphia’s arts and cultural landscape through first-person stories from the region’s creative community.

Among those featured is Anthony Roth Costanzo, Grammy Award-winning countertenor and General Director and President of Opera Philadelphia, who shares the story of his own transformation into a revolutionary Egyptian pharaoh for Philip Glass’ “Akhnaten” at the Metropolitan Opera.

The partnership will then continue in April 2027, when Opera Philadelphia presents Verdi’s “Aida” at the Academy of Music. To delve deeper into the topics of the opera, the partner institutions will host a panel discussion in the spring. Egyptologists from the Penn Museum and scholars from the University of Pennsylvania Music Department, alongside speakers from Opera Philadelphia, will examine the ancient Egyptian world represented in the Museum’s collections alongside the fictionalized Egypt of “Aida,” opening up questions about how archaeology, popular culture, and the arts shape modern perceptions of the ancient world.

In the fall, the partnership will also extend into the Penn Museum’s four-week virtual course the Deep Dig, which connects lifelong learners with the Museum’s collections, research, and global archaeological work.