Sabbioneta Chamber Opera Festival will opens its concert season with Monteverdi’s “L’Orfeo.”

The showcase, set for Sept. 19, 2026, at the Teatro all’Antica in Sabbioneta, is the culmination of the festival’s Residencies project, an international laboratory that began in May and brought young artists from several European countries to Sabbioneta to prepare the production.

Leading the residency is contralto Sara Mingardo. She worked alongside Cesare Scarton, who handled stage preparation, and Stefano Lorenzetti, who curated the musical program and will conduct the Orchestra degli Antichi.

The semi-staged production will star Baptiste Bonfante as Orpheus, with Giulia Rappazzo as Music and Eurydice, Zoreslava Vynnyk as the Messenger, Isabella De Massis as Hope, Elsa Biscari as Proserpina and Nymph, Daniel Chomiak as Charon and Pluto, Giovanni Petrini as Apollo and the First Shepherd, Franko Gustavo Argandoña as the Second Shepherd, and Marco Guidorizzi as the Third Shepherd.

Giampaolo Tirelli designed costumes, with makeup by Rosanna Carollo and hair by GG Parrucchieri.

“I believe Sabbioneta has all the makings to become a high level cultural center dedicated to early and baroque music,” said Andrea Castello, artistic director of the Sabbioneta Chamber Opera Festival and Vicenza in Lirica, per an official press release. “The residencies are the most concrete calling card of the project we are building. Sabbioneta cannot just be an extraordinary city to visit: it must be a city to live in.”

There will be a follow up performance on Sept. 20, 2026, at Villa Pisani Bonetti in Bagnolo di Lonigo.