Opera Philadelphia is set to open its 2025-2026 Season with “Vox Ex Machina,” a 50th Anniversary celebration on Sept. 13, 2025.

The anniversary concert will feature opera stars mezzo Stephanie Blythe, soprano Nicole Heaston, baritone Will Liverman, mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack, and the General Director himself, countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo.

In a unique synesthetic experience, each singer’s aria will become a physical painting in real time before the audience’s eyes, harnessing bold new technology to marry music and visual art.

In a statement, Costanzo said, “For 50 years, Opera Philadelphia has made art at the highest level, and as we continue to honor tradition and innovate, we are thrilled to celebrate this momentous milestone with Vox Ex Machina. This gala will be unlike anything you’ve been to before: a dynamic culmination of music, history, art, food with some of classical music’s brightest stars, marrying their voices to technology and visual art. I can’t wait to welcome everyone in Philadelphia, whether you’ve been to the opera 50 times or you’ve never been here before, to join in this anniversary celebration and the incredible season that we’re about to embark upon together.”

In the winter of 2025, Opera Philadelphia partnered with Drexel University’s ExCITe Center and artist and creative technologist Daniel Belquer to launch a course with the goal of creating a machine that could take variables such as pitch, volume, and vibrato from a singer’s performance and paint a canvas in response to an aria as it unfolds. The audience will see these sonic visual representations materialize during this one-of-a-kind concert.

Following the performance, guests will head to Philadelphia’s beloved Reading Terminal Market for an out-of-the-box celebration dinner.

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