Opera Philadelphia is looking ahead to its most ambitious production season since the pandemic. President and General Director Anthony Roth Costanzo credited the success of the company’s "Pick Your Price" ticketing program for its sold-out season that just wrapped up. Bouyed by that success, he has planned five productions in the coming season, and a total of 19 performances, plus a gala performance that merges music and art. The productions include the rarely staged Rossini work Il Viaggio a Reims, two world premieres and two other contemporary productions.
This will be Costanzo’s first fully curated season since taking on the company’s leadership just under a year ago, and he recently chatted with host Rachel Katz about the success of Pick Your Price, which allows patrons to buy tickets for any of its performances for as little as $11, and how he designed the upcoming season.
The program also includes an interview with Isavel Mendoza, a senior at Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts In Bethlehem, Penn., whose poetry recitations earned him the title of 2025 Poetry Out Loud National Champion. Poetry Out Loud, a partnership between the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation, celebrated its 20th season this year, attracting a total of 157,000 students from across the U.S., who competed at local, regional and state competitions that led up to the finals earlier this month.
