During his second season as Music Director of the Royal Opera House, Jakub Hrůša will span a wide repertoire in collaboration with leading stage directors and fellow conductors.
In the new season, Hrůša will once again be one of the central figures: in the autumn, he will conduct a new production of Wagner’s Parsifal, directed by Evgeny Titov. He will then prepare Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera in a production by Philipp Stölzl, and will also lead a revival of Janáček’s Káťa Kabanová staged by Richard Jones. Hrůša will also bring the Royal Opera orchestra onto the concert platform, conducting a concert performance of Bluebeard’s Castle paired with The Rite of Spring.
“My second season at Covent Garden once again fully realizes the vision of our collaboration that we set at the beginning of our journey together,” says Hrůša. “My repertoire will combine three great masters of world opera: Wagner, Verdi, and Janáček. I consider this contrast truly outstanding. Two of the productions will be brand new (Parsifal and Un ballo in maschera), while the third will be a revival. I am also pleased that this season will include Czech music. Káťa Kabanová is one of my most beloved operas, as I experienced particularly during its very successful staging in Salzburg in 2022—here in London, the title role will again be sung, as there, by Corinne Winters.
I feel similarly about Wagner. For me, Verdi represents an entry into a field I have so far explored less actively than I would have liked; I cannot wait to take on this masterpiece, Un ballo in maschera, which I consider one of his finest works, although it stands somewhat in the shadow of more famous titles such as Nabucco, La traviata, or Aida.
I am also glad that we are continuing to expand our concert activities, which I set as a goal. We will again present two magnificent works closely connected with the stage. My contribution to ballet repertoire will be The Rite of Spring (the orchestra is delighted to perform it this time free from the specific demands of choreography), and our exploration of non-Italian, non-German, and non-Czech opera will include a concert performance of Bluebeard’s Castle, with Elīna Garanča in the leading female role alongside Christian Van Horn as Bluebeard. Bartók, together with Janáček, is among my favorite composers of this period, and our previous concert performance of his The Miraculous Mandarin was so engaging and well received that we are now taking this next step together. I am very satisfied with the combination of titles for the 2026/27 season.”
