Mannes Opera at The New School’s College of Performing Arts 2025/26 season exemplifies the school’s mandate of the new, championing works by female creators and offering New York City opera audiences the rare opportunity to experience seldom-produced pieces in professional, fully staged productions—all while educating young artists across a range of performance and musical genres. That the majority of The New School’s remarkably rich arts programming is offered free of charge is an astounding gift in this time of shrinking affordability and funding.

Conservatories serve an essential function in sustaining opera as a dynamic and vibrant art form, both in generating new work and nurturing emerging performers and makers who will lead the future. Mannes puts students alongside today's leading creators, promoting deep engagement with the industry, and offering transformative artistic experiences to students, performers, and audiences alike. Mannes Opera produces more new and undiscovered work than any other conservatory, with contemporary work an essential part of its pedagogy (along with the canon and early music), thereby widening the professional scope of these new generations.

The new season spans over a century of repertoire (1917–2025). All five productions are directed by women, four of the six featured composers are women, and both professional workshop companies are led by women. The line-up features the United States premiere of Erich Korngold’s fascinating "Broadway operetta" comedy The Silent Serenade, as well as the chamber version of Kaija Saariaho’s La Passion de Simone. The Opera in Concert series enters its third year of double-bills with full orchestra, pairing Busoni's seldom-heard Turandot (pre-dates the Puccini) with Unsuk Chin's Puzzles and Games. In addition, Mannes presents two ambitious Workshops that foster new American work by showcasing new operas by Mannes faculty Alyssa Weinberg and Kamala Sankaram.