High Note
Austin Opera celebrates 40th season and new $7.5M arts center

Austin Opera is having a big year for its 40th.
For Austin Opera’s 40th birthday, it's getting a dramatic season and a new $7.5 million building.
On February 26, Austin Opera announced its headliners for the upcoming 2025-2026 season, which opens in November. To kick off its 40th-anniversary celebration, Opera music director Timothy Myers will conduct “Celebrate Opera! A Spectacular Birthday Concert” at the Long Center.
This month, guests can get tickets to a production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Broadway musical Carousel, created in partnership with Boston Lyric Opera and led by Obie Award-winning director Anne Bogart. The season concludes in spring 2026 with four performances of Puccini’s masterpiece La bohème, one of the world’s most popular and relatable operas.
Subscriptions for the 2025-2026 Season went on sale to current subscribers on Tuesday, February 25, and new subscribers can purchase a season ticket package on Wednesday, March 26. Individual tickets for the season will be available on Monday, August 4.
“This 2025-2026 Season at Austin Opera celebrates the rich history and love for this art form that our city has built over the past four decades while also looking to a future brimming with promise and possibility,” said Austin Opera CEO Annie Burridge in a release. Burridge is also celebrating her own 10th anniversary with the company.
The nonprofit, a community fixture since 1986, unveiled plans for its new headquarters in October. The 16,000-square-foot building at 5811 Center Dr. is expected to open to the public in spring 2026, according to a press release. It will feature a 185-seat performance theater and rehearsal space, teaching and practice studios, a costume shop, a conference center, an outdoor event space, and the opera’s administrative offices.
Austin Opera’s new headquarters will include a year-round venue dubbed the Sarah & Ernst Butler Performing Arts Center to expand programming and offer an affordable performance and rehearsal space for the Austin community. Philanthropists Sarah and Ernst Butler were lead contributors to the capital campaign. Larger shows will still be held in the Opera’s Long Center.
“From a celebratory concert led by our inimitable music director Timothy Myers to grand productions of an American masterpiece and opera’s greatest love story, plus exciting developments at our new home," said Burridge, "this is a season that makes an emphatic statement, that Austin is an opera town and will be for many years to come!”