Welcome to Shakespeare, a celebration of the great Bard through the wonderful world of opera. 

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This recital returns in 2026 as a new iteration of Voxalis Opera’s critically acclaimed 2023 Shakespeare program, reimagined with a fresh cast. While the repertoire draws on the same rich tradition that audiences embraced in its first presentation, this version deepens the dramatic through-line and presents the music within a semi-staged framework.

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Born in 1564, William Shakespeare was a prolific writer of the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras whose plays have inspired centuries of artists across all disciplines. Opera, in particular, has continually returned to Shakespeare’s worlds of heightened emotion, moral conflict, and human vulnerability. Today’s performance is both a homage to this enduring legacy and an exploration of how composers across eras have transformed Shakespeare’s words into music — from Romantic grand opera to contemporary song. 

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Rather than presenting the works as a sequence of individual excerpts, this recital unfolds as a loosely connected dramatic journey centred on jealousy and the classic love triangle — a foundational theme in both opera and theatre. Characters shift and evolve as the program progresses, blurring the boundaries between Shakespeare’s worlds and revealing how love, obsession, desire, betrayal, and devotion echo across different stories and musical styles.

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Through this semi-staged approach, the singers inhabit multiple roles, allowing the audience to experience the emotional through-lines that unite these works, rather than viewing them in isolation. The result is an intimate theatrical experience that places storytelling at its core, honouring Shakespeare not only as a literary figure, but as a living dramatic force within music.

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We are deeply grateful to our artists for their artistry and for embracing some of the most demanding repertoire in the operatic canon. Finally, thank you to our audience for joining us, and for Red Chair for making this tour possible. We hope this performance invites you to hear Shakespeare anew, and to continue the journey with Voxalis Opera and Red Chair throughout our 2026 seasons.

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Camilo Lopez
Co-Founder & Artistic Director, Voxalis Opera