For Immediate Release
October 15, 2026
Catapult Opera Announces 2026-27 Season, the Most Ambitious Since Neal Goren Founded the Company in 2020
2026-27 includes:
New York premiere production of the haunting and intimate Sound of a Voice, with music by Philip Glass and a libretto by David Henry Hwang, conducted by Neal Goren, directed by Luca Veggetti, and performed by International Contemporary Ensemble, March 25-27, 2027
The American premiere of François Couperin’s Ariane consolée par Bacchus, a cantata unheard for three centuries, conducted by Neal Goren, directed by Marcus Shields, performed by Jeffrey Grossman and members of the Sebastians, in partnership with L’Alliance New York, May 2027
A weeklong workshop of Catapult Opera commission Innocent Eyes by David Hertzberg—surrounding the operatic life of Joan Crawford—at Brown Arts Institute’s Lindemann Performing Arts Center, January 19-23 2027, followed by a preview presentation at Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM)’s BAM Fisher, January 24
Digital Opera Short Meet John Doe, by late celebrated composer Daniel Catán, Spring 2027
Catapult Opera (Neal Goren, Founder & Artistic Director), the New York City-based chamber opera company dedicated to performing new and undiscovered works at the highest level of vocal and theatrical artistry, announces an ambitious 2026-27 season of bold productions and momentous partnerships with two influential New York cultural institutions, Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) and L’Alliance New York. A singular presence in the cultural ecosystem, Catapult Opera introduces audiences to remarkable vocal music they’re likely hearing for the very first time. The largest season since the company’s founding in 2020 includes rarely performed work by living legend Philip Glass, a new commission from Guggenheim fellow David Hertzberg, the U.S. premiere of a François Couperin cantata, and a Digital Opera Short from late beloved modern composer Daniel Catán.
Neal Goren said, “Across work by one of our greatest living composers as he celebrates his 90th birthday; by a composer representing the next generation of contemporary classical legends; by a composer whose stunning cantata for 300 years sat in obscurity; and by a celebrated composer whose life was cut short before he could complete a masterpiece excerpted this season; 2026-27 emphasizes the exhilaration Catapult Opera takes in focusing on the intimate gesture. 19th Century opera, which is the focus of many large houses, was about the epic, but much that came before and after it—both of which are what we focus on—contained the intense emotions of opera within the intimate. This is valuable musically and artistically because it distills the power of opera into a very palpable experience. As we form exciting partnerships this season and are invited into the homes of these eminent institutions, it’s clear how vital this visceral, close-up work is to expanding the ways we encounter, hear, and consider opera—and how fundamental Catapult Opera is to the future of the New York classical music landscape.”
Complete season details are available at catapultopera.org, with on-sale dates to be announced.
Philip Glass & David Henry Hwang |Sound of a Voice
Philip Glass turns 90 on January 31, 2027, and, as the occasion is marked around the world with new productions and revivals, it’s also a centerpiece of Catapult’s season. At Gerald Lynch Theater at John Jay College (524 West 59th Street) from March 25-27, 2027, Catapult will present Sound of a Voice, his 2003 opera with libretto by Tony Award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang, the fruit of a collaboration that began in the 1980s.
In Sound of a Voice, intimacy is achieved between people who have lived in seclusion: an aging Japanese writer and a solitary innkeeper. Distinguished from many Glass works in its small orchestra of only four—shakuhachi flute, pipa, cello, and percussion, which will be performed by International Contemporary Ensemble—Sound of a Voice sets Asian and Western instrumentation to Hwang’s story of individuals attempting to forge a connection with one another. Neal Goren will conduct the production, whose vocalists are baritone Suchan Kim and mezzo soprano Chihiro Asano, in her New York operatic debut.
Says Goren, “Considering it’s an opera about intimacy—about how we can construct each other’s identities and the idea of another person from the barest snippets of knowledge—the music is made up of intimate, distilled gestures. Its spareness is interesting because if we think of Philip Glass and minimalism, the works that most come to mind are actually maximal in their own way. This is another side of Philip Glass.”
François Couperin | Ariane consolée par Bacchus
The second full production of the season will be an extraordinary opportunity for audiences to be the first in 300 years to hear the only surviving cantata from French Baroque composer François Couperin, Ariane consolée par Bacchus. This presentation brings Catapult into collaboration with L’Alliance New York—who co-presents the opera in their Florence Gould Theater, May 2027. Conducted by Neal Goren and directed by Marcus Shields, who last with Catapult directed Nothing Follows (a double bill which featured Nico Muhly and Greg Pierce’s The Glitch alongside Monteverdi’s Combattimento), Ariane consolée par Bacchus will include Couperin’s cantata—which centers the voice of Bacchus—alongside that of another to-be-announced French Baroque composer whose version is told from the perspective of Ariane. Jeffrey Grossman and members of the Sebastians will perform. Vocalists are soprano Melissa Harvey (returning to collaboration with Catapult Opera following Nadia Boulanger’s La ville morte) and baritone Gregory Feldmann.
Says Goren, “This piece was doubly exciting to me because not only was it recently discovered, but all opera lovers know the Strauss Ariadne auf Naxos and my previous company Gotham Chamber Opera did the U.S. premiere of Handel's Arianna in Creta, so these are characters I’ve been very interested in for a long time. Like Sound of a Voice, it asks big questions about identity and how completely we can know a person.”
David Hertzberg | Innocent Eyes
The season features both workshop and preview presentation of a new Catapult Opera commission from Guggenheim Fellow David Hertzberg, whose 2017 opera The Wake World won the Music Critics Association of North America's award for Best New Opera and whose recording of it was named among the year's best classical albums by The New York Times in 2020. Neal Goren calls that opera “one of the greatest things I’ve ever heard.”
In a season that also features Bacchus heavily as a character, Goren fittingly describes Hertzberg’s writing and composition as “Dionysian, wildly passionate and erotic. His music is throbbing and grabs you by the neck.”
Now in Innocent Eyes, Hertzberg takes on the fascinating, polarizing legacy of Joan Crawford. No stranger to obsessive and fantastical tales, Hertzberg focuses his latest on this character of operatic proportions, set between her reign as queen of MGM and her historic comeback in Mildred Pierce, spinning the uncanny tale of a strange, enchanted dinner party after which nothing was ever the same.
The chamber opera will have a week-long workshop, January January 19-23 at the Brown Arts Institute’s Lindemann Performing Arts Center in Providence, RI, before coming to BAM in an exclusive first-peek presentation, January 24 at BAM Fisher (Fishman Space). Conducted by Neal Goren, It will be performed without sets, costumes, or staging—with singers and a piano, in a form no audience will hear again.
Daniel Catán | Meet John Doe
This Digital Opera Short, of an aria from an opera acclaimed composer Daniel Catán was in the middle of composing when he died in 2011, based on the 1941 Frank Capra film of the same name, will be released to audiences everywhere in Spring 2027. The release extends a commissioning series that has brought new work from Nico Muhly, Celisse, and Khary Laurent to audiences who may never have set foot in an opera house.
About Catapult Opera
Catapult Opera is a New York City-based chamber opera company dedicated to performing new and undiscovered works at the highest level of vocal and theatrical artistry. Catapult was founded in 2020 by Artistic Director Neal Goren, the visionary behind the celebrated Gotham Chamber Opera, and Catapult brings that company's adventurous spirit to today's New York vocal music scene.
Catapult has produced and performed the American premiere of Nadia Boulanger's only opera, La ville morte, the American premiere of Hosokawa's Hanjo, and the American stage premiere of Stradella's San Giovanni Battista. The company also commissions and releases a series of digital opera shorts from composers including Nico Muhly, Celisse, and Khary Laurent, and presents new and rarely staged work in partnership with leading institutions across the city and around the world, including BAM and L'Alliance New York.
For Catapult, every performance is a discovery, shared with an audience hearing it for the first time.
Follow Catapult Opera
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About BAM
A world-class home for adventurous artists, audiences, and ideas, BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) is North America’s oldest performing arts center, showcasing the work of emerging artists and modern icons. For more than 160 years, BAM has been a thriving, urban multi-arts complex renowned for presenting an unparalleled roster of visionary and cuttingedge dance, theater, music, opera, visual arts, literature, and film engagements. Attracting more than 750,000 people annually to its home in Brooklyn, BAM provides a welcoming cultural stage and meeting place for global and local communities of all backgrounds. BAM’s distinctive multi-theater campus is alive year-round with inspired new engagements and signature programs alike including the renowned Next Wave (one of the world’s most influential festivals of contemporary performing arts, founded in 1983), the iconic DanceAfrica, an acclaimed repertory film program, and literary, archival, educational and humanities programs. For more information visit BAM.org.
About L’Alliance New York
L’Alliance New York is an independent, not-for-profit organization committed to providing its audience and students with engaging French language classes and audacious multi-disciplinary programming that celebrates the diversity of francophone cultures and creativity around the world. A welcoming and inclusive community for all ages and all backgrounds, L’Alliance New York is a place where people can meet, learn, and explore the richness of our heritages and share discoveries. L’Alliance New York strives to amplify voices and build bridges from the entire francophone world to New York and beyond.
Press Contact
Blake Zidell at Blake Zidell & Associates: blake@blakezidell.com or 917.572.2493
