The Spoleto Festival USA has announced its 2026 season.

The season will showcase “The Old Maid and the Thief,” a Spoleto production of Gian Carlo Menotti’s 1939 radio opera, is reimagined as a live radio-drama with hand-crafted sound effects, period microphones, and on-stage musicians, creating a witty, immersive, and accessible entry point for opera newcomers.

Performance Dates: May 22, 25,27, 29, 2026

“Dido and Aeneas” fuses Purcell’s iconic 1689 opera with acrobatics and modern orchestration under conductor Patrick Dupré Quigley.

Performance Dates: May 23, 26, 28, 30, 2026

“Renée Fleming & Béla Fleck: The Fiddle and the Drum” celebrate Appalachian folk traditions.

Performance Date: May 23, 2026

Music Director of the Festival Chorus, Amanda Quist brings the Festival Chorus and Orchestra together for a performance of Mozart’s Mass in C Minor.

Performance Date: May 29, 2026

“The Untold Story Behind Porgy & Bess” examines the complex history of one of America’s most iconic operas, tracing its roots in Charleston’s Gullah-Geechee culture and its lasting impact through live music.

Performance Date: June 2, 2026

The Festival Chorus also turns its focus to American voices in “Storytelling Through American Composers” in a program that explores identity, memory, and community through choral works by American composers at the historic St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church.

Performance Dates: June 5 & 6, 2026