Park City Opera will take audiences to the heartland, Italy and around the world during its upcoming 2026 season. The musical journey will include 10 free public performances — three at the Park City Library and seven at City Park, two private events, one lecture and two Main Stage productions of Aaron Copland’s “The Tender Land” and Charles Gounod’s “Roméo Juliette.” (See accompanying schedule.) The schedule shows how Park City Opera staff and cofounders  — Executive Director Lena Goldstein, Artistic Director Benjamin Beckman and Development Directors Lisl Wangerman — want to build on the foundation they laid two summers ago. “For me, to continue is to grow and offer a greater variety of concert-going experiences, some that are more casual than we’ve done before and some that are even grander than what we’ve done before,” Goldstein said. “I think this year, we’ve planned more ways than ever for audiences to gather with the people they love for new musical experiences. We’re growing in a full spectrum of what we offer audiences this summer.” And while Park City Opera works to expand its programing, it is expanding its artist roster, Goldstein said. Park City Opera’s Artistic Director Benjamin Beckman and Executive Director Lena Goldstein take in the applause after a free Opera on the Patio performance last season at the Park City Library. The Opera on the Patio series will return along with other programming Park City Opera scheduled during its 2026 season. Credit: Photo courtesy of Park City Opera “We will generally be working with locally based singers and instrumentalists, but we’ll also bring nationally and internationally acclaimed guest artists to Park City this summer,” she said. “So, our county will have more than 70 artists.” Wangermann said there is more of a consistency and a regularity of what the company will do this season. “It’s really an evolution of previous seasons,” she said. “In our first season, we tested a lot of different venues and formats. Last summer we honed in on the things that worked and did them once or twice and then had one Main Stage performance over two weekends. This summer, we have not one, but two full productions in July and August.” “The Tender Land,” scheduled July 18 and 19 at Temple Har Shalom, is the first Main Stage production out of the gates, and “Roméo Juliette” will be performed Aug. 21 and 23 at the Ecceles Center for the Performing Arts, according to Beckman. “These pieces in many ways could not be more different, yet they both center around a very similar concept, which is love,” he said.  “The Tender Land,” which was selected to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary, revolves around Laurie, who lives on a farm in the West during the time of the Dust Bowl in the 1930s, Beckman said. “She’s a high school senior who is graduating, and that is an experience that is so familiar to many of us,” he said. “She is also forced to make important decisions about her life over the course of the opera. I say that vaguely so I don’t give too much away, but I think those choices are very familiar to us living in America.” Copland’s music has an “almost simple Americana quality to it,” Beckman said. “That’s what makes this unique for an opera, and that works in painting a portrait of a world that Laurie is living in,” he said. “The Tender Land” premiered in 1954, and Copland passed away in 1990, so there is a “recency” to the work, Beckman said.  Musicians perform during Park City Opera’s production of Gioachino Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville” last season. The company will expand it’s musical offerings this season, which will include more free community performances and two Main Stage operas — Aaron Copland’s “The Tender Land” and Charles Gounod’s “Roméo Juliette.” Credit: Park Record file photo by Michael Ritucci “Because of this, it seems there’s more of a shared experience between the audiences and the characters,” he said. Audiences who attend “The Tender Land” will also enjoy immersive experiences, Goldstein said.  “Since the opera is being produced in celebration of America’s 250th birthday, as an extension, we want to use the venue, which is Temple Har Shalom, to its full capacity to celebrate,” Goldstein said. “The opera itself is set in an open-prairie landscape, and we feel the indoor-outdoor nature of Temple Har Shalom and the flow of that space is conducive to the setting of the opera. So, in that particular experience, the ticket price will include American light bites. We’ll also have a cash bar offering American cocktails and beverages. And we’ll have some folk musicians and additional activation of the lobby to celebrate this milestone.”  “Roméo Juliette” differs from “The Tender Land” in terms of time, place and presentation, according to Beckman. “The characters of Shakespeare are a little farther removed from where we are now because I don’t know if any of us have been characters in a grand French opera that is set in Verona, Italy, during the Renaissance,” he said with a laugh. “But this is also a very familiar story, and even though the direct experience of the characters may differ from us, we can relate to the experience they go through during the course of the story.” Gounod’s music and the grand scale of the production caught Beckman’s attention. “One of the things we were drawn to is the immediate power of the score, which is stunning, and that lens, especially in the tradition of a Grand French opera, filters Shakespeare’s material and adds so much,” he said. “There are so many ‘Roméo Juliette’ renditions, but to give this opera some context, during the opening scene, every character is on stage in a chorus, and they tell us what happens. It’s just like the opening scene of the play, where the chorus recites a 14-line sonnet.” While “Roméo Juliette” is a familiar story, French opera may be unfamiliar to the Park City audience, Wangermann said. “We have never produced it before, but it is a beautiful style, and the grandeur fits the size of the space we’re utilizing,” she said. “When Park City Opera produces a Grand Opera, we mean an orchestra of more than 40 players, a full chorus and the works,” Goldstein said. “So, if ‘The Barber of Seville’ was the first opera to be produced locally and fully staged after 20-something years in Park City last year, ‘Roméo Juliette’ will be the first grand opera to be produced in that time frame.” Performing at the Eccles Center for the Performing Arts was at the top of Park City Opera’s wish list, Wangermann said.  “When we started three summers ago, we saw the Eccles as a dream venue for us, and we hoped that one day we would fill that space,” she said. “So, we’re super excited that we’re doing that this year, and excited to be working with their team. We’re so grateful for the support we’re receiving from them.” In keeping with the tradition of making the artform accessible to audiences, Park City Opera will continue performing free recitals around the community, which include Opera on the Patio at the Park City Library, and a new concept, Opera Around the World Series. “The idea is that each week we will showcase opera from a different country and the region surrounding that country,” said Goldstein, who came up with the plan. “In the week we showcase opera from Austria, we will showcase music from the Alps.” These performances build on the weekly recitals Park City Opera established with Mountain Town Music. “We’ve done these free in-the-park picnic performances since we started, and last summer we partnered with Brian Richards and Mountain Town Music for the first time,” Goldstein said. “He invited us back this summer to fill out a more robust series in the park. So, we thought about how to entice audiences to follow us on this journey, and what better journey to represent opera, which is such a global tradition, than Opera Around the World.” Goldstein believes the concept will expose audiences to opera from regions they may not associate with classical music.  “We’re excited to highlight two Peruvian singers who are Utah based in a week dedicated to Peruvian opera and art song,” she said. Goldstein is currently working on a plan that will draw attention to the new series.  “We have stamps that folks can collect in some capacity,” she said. “We don’t know, yet, if we’ll have little passports or something. But the idea is that if you come to see a performance, you will get a stamp.” The series grand finale will be Aug. 24, the day after “Roméo Julliette” closes, Goldstein said.  “It will be a celebration of the global impact of opera and there will be something for those who have come with us on this full journey, as well as the artists who have joined us as well,” she said. Although the City Park performances have a new name, the Park City Opera’s Opera on the Patio performances at the Park City Library will continue as they are, Beckman said. “As an organization we constantly think about our programming and are always in touch with the audience experience,” he said. “And we are excited to continue our series with the Park City Library. While those performances are not part of the Opera Around the World series, but with them and the library performances, we have 10 free public performances throughout the summer.” Since the Park City Beethoven Festival, overseen by the Park City Chamber Music Society, closed in 2025 after 41 seasons, and the annual Deer Valley Music Festival is presented by the Salt Lake City-based Utah Symphony | Utah Opera, Park City Opera is the only professional classical-music organization based in town, Goldstein said. “So we feel it’s more important than ever that there is an abundance of free, casual, approachable classical-music experiences for anyone to attend,” she said. Park City Opera’s 2026 season schedule Main Stage Productions  Aaron Copland’s “The Tender Land,” in English, 5 p.m., July 18-19, Temple Har Shalom, 3700 N Brookside Ct. Charles Gounod’s “Roméo et Juliette,” in French with English supertitles, 7 p.m. on Aug. 21 and 3 p.m. on Aug. 23, Eccles Center for the Performing Arts, 1750 Kearns Blvd. Free Community Events  July 1 — Opera on the Patio: Summer Starts Here, 6:30 p.m., Park City Library Patio, 1255 Park Ave. 13 — Opera Around the World: America, 6:30 p.m., City Park Bandstand, 1400 Sullivan Rd. 20 — Opera Around the World: Italy, 6:30 p.m., City Park Bandstand 27 — Opera Around the World: Peru, 6:30 p.m., City Park Bandstand 29 — Opera Lecture, 5 p.m., Park City Museum’s Education and Collections Center,  2079 Sidewinder Drive August 3 — Opera Around the World: Austria The Alps, 6:30 p.m., City Park Bandstand 5 — Opera on the Patio: A Seaside Serenade, 6:30 p.m., Park City Library Patio 10 — Opera Around the World: Great Britain, 6:30 p.m., City Park Bandstand 17 — Opera Around the World: France, 6:30 p.m., City Park Bandstand 24 — Opera Around the World: Grand Finale, 6:30 p.m., City Park Bandstand Special Events June 27— American Opera at Promontory’s Shed Amphitheater, 6 p.m. August  6 — Songs of the Sea: Opera Dinner at Park Meadows, 6:30 p.m. For tickets and information, visit parkcityopera.org. 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