The Opéra National de Paris has announced its 2026/27 season, and the opening night is a statement of intent.
Perle Noire
On September 9, 2026, the Paris Opera will premiere Perle noire: méditations pour Joséphine — a new opera by American composer Tyshawn Sorey, directed by Peter Sellars, with soprano Julia Bullock in the title role.
The work celebrates the 120th anniversary of Josephine Baker's birth. Baker — born in St. Louis, reinvented in Paris — was a dancer, singer, actress, French Resistance intelligence operative, and civil rights activist. She is buried in the Panthéon, one of only six women to receive that honour.
For the Paris Opera to open its season with a work about Baker is symbolically potent: an American institution of Black culture, reimagined through the lens of French opera, composed by one of the most important living American composers.
The Team
Tyshawn Sorey is a MacArthur Fellow whose work moves between composition, improvisation, and conducting. His opera Cycles of My Being, written with Lawrence Brownlee, explored the experience of being a Black man in America. Perle noire extends that inquiry into a different register — historical, biographical, and mythic.
Peter Sellars needs no introduction. His partnerships with John Adams (Nixon in China, Doctor Atomic) defined American opera in the late twentieth century. Sellars brings a theatrical intelligence that can handle Baker's complexity — her glamour, her politics, her pain.
Julia Bullock, making her Paris Opera debut, is among the most compelling singer-actors of her generation. Her voice and stage presence are ideally suited to a role that demands both vocal power and dramatic nuance.
The Full Season
The 2026/27 season includes seven new productions. Highlights include the conclusion of Calixto Bieito's Ring cycle with Götterdämmerung conducted by Pablo Heras-Casado, a world premiere of Mirror of Our Sorrows by Hector Parra, and new productions of Don Giovanni (Louisa Proske), Idomeneo (Wajdi Mouawad), and Werther (Robert Carsen).
Semyon Bychkov serves as Music Director for what promises to be one of the most ambitious seasons in recent Paris Opera history.
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