Fisher Center LAB is set to present the world premiere of Courtney Bryan’s “Suddenly Last Summer,” co-produced by Opera Philadelphia.

The opera will be presented between June 25 and July 19 at the Fisher Center, as part of Bard SummerScape 2026.

The opera is composed by Bryan and features a libretto by Fisher Center Artistic Director and Chief Executive Gideon Lester and Tony-nominated director Daniel Fish. The opera is based on Tennessee Williams’s seldom-performed tale of power, desire, and the lengths a family will go to protect its legacy.

The production will star Mikaela Bennett, Tina Benko, and Branden Lindsay. The Young People’s Chorus of New York City joins the production as its choral ensemble. Rounding out the cast will be Miriam Silverman and Nick Westrate.

In a statement Lester said, “As I read the poetry of Williams’s scenes, I thought, ‘this has an opera in it because it’s gothic; it’s fabulously intense, emotionally, and its language soars.’ Opera, of course, is a form that gives itself to heightened passions, to great drama, to singing what really can’t be spoken. We think of Williams’s most famous plays, set in New Orleans and the South, as being representations of real life, but they go far beyond that into the realms of the imagination and the unconscious. ‘Suddenly Last Summer’ is perhaps the most extreme and glorious example of that. I’d been thinking for some time about approaching the great composer Courtney Bryan to see whether she might want to take her first foray into theater with music. I sent her the play, and I think she was really captivated by it.”

Bryan added, “I took a collaboration course with Gideon. It’s nice that years later, we’re collaborating on a professional project. It’s interesting to think about a different side of New Orleans than where I grew up, one that I’m only familiar with from the outside; these characters lived in houses in the Garden District of New Orleans that were always a mystery to me. The project has allowed me to think differently about harmony, to get into the emotions behind the characters and the story, and capture the extreme moods of the piece. That was a big part of my draw to the project.”

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