IN Series Opera 25-26 Season: “IN Principio” Featuring All Premiere Works

 

 

Contact: Amanda Sweet
Bucklesweet
amanda@bucklesweet.com 

IN SERIES OPERA ANNOUNCES 2025-26 SEASON: “IN Principio”
FEATURING ALL WORLD PREMIERE WORKS

St John the Baptist, The Delta King’s Blues, A Set of Passion Plays, and The Song of Sakuntala

 

WASHINGTON– IN Series has announced its 2025-26 season, “IN Principio” which consists solely of the premiere of works of music and theater. It is a season that lifts-up the new, and showcases the possibility of new beginnings. 

"To make art is to be politically optimistic—to believe that something new, born from nothing, can transform the world,” said Artistic Director Timothy Nelson. “At IN Series, this audacious hope is at the heart of all we do. Our 2025–2026 IN Principio season is a celebration of creation itself: eight premieres (including The Alcestiade on July 20 at MLK Library)  that represent new beginnings, bold ideas, and the joy of discovering something for the first time. Join us in this adventure—because every time you see an IN Series production, you’re not just witnessing art. You’re witnessing a world reborn."

 

ST JOHN THE BAPTIST
World Premiere Staging

October 4 – 19
A baroque masterpiece written in the 1670s, St John the Baptist vividly retells the harrowing story of Salome. Despite its historic significance and radiant score—featured in Maria Callas’ debut concert performance in 1945—this opera has never been staged. Now, in collaboration with New York’s Catapult Opera, it makes its long-awaited theatrical debut. Performed in English by local singers and envisioned by Baltimore-based designers, this co-production breathes new life into a lost gem of operatic history.

THE DELTA KING’S BLUES
World Premiere

December 6 – 21
Marking IN Series' first fully commissioned opera, The Delta King’s Blues is an immersive musical journey created by Baltimore artist and Cardwell Dawson Artist Fellow Jarrod Lee, with music by acclaimed composer Damien Geter. Blending classical and blues traditions, this innovative work tells the legendary tale of Robert Johnson, father of the blues, and the American myth of his Faustian bargain. A celebration of original American music, the piece resonates deeply with IN Series' artistic mission.

 

PASSION PLAYS

March 6 – 29
This powerful festival presents three original works inspired by the transformative nature of the “passion experience”—transcendence through suffering.

Only the Air

Bach’s St. Matthew Passion arias intertwine with a newly-commissioned libretto featuring poetic translations by Washington, D.C. poet Shana Oshiro. Reimagined religious texts by dramaturg Joshua Borths and new translations of Bach’s chorales by local community voices—including politicians, activists, and clergy—create a deeply resonant and communal spiritual exploration.

Passio

In a groundbreaking international collaboration, eight female artists from four continents and diverse musical traditions come together to interpret suffering and rebirth through a feminine lens. The work features contributions from Baltimore artist Joyce Alexander, as well as artists versed in Indian classical music, North African Arabic styles, jazz (both traditional and avant-garde), and medieval musical forms.

For Women Serving Time

Composer Adrienne Torf and Maryland poet Fatemeh Keshavarz fuse Faure’s Requiem, jazz elements, and Brechtian theatrical traditions in a poignant meditation on female incarceration. This extended poem-opera sheds light on the lives and resilience of women in the U.S. prison system, offering a voice to a population often overlooked.

 

THE SONG OF SAKUNTALA

June 6 - 21
Artistic Director Timothy Nelson creates a new opera inspired by the ancient Indian play Shakuntala by Kalidasa. Blending Western classical and Indian Carnatic instruments, the opera reimagines this timeless tale of love and destiny through a transcultural musical lens. Featuring Baltimore sitarist and composer Ami Dang and percussionist Rajna Swaminathan, this work bridges traditions to reveal universal themes. The project was inspired by a suggestion from visionary American director Peter Sellars.

 

2025/26 VIRTUAL SEASON
IN Series’ virtual season features productions that further stretch the bounds of opera by applying our
site-based approach to producing for a digital venue. Presented on IN Series’ digital platform, INvision:
The Logan OPERAhouse Without Walls, the virtual season will include other complementary digital
content, such as radio and digital versions of each of our mainstage productions and is available free to
the public online. Since the debut of INvision, we have increased our reach to Baltimore and DC
audiences who experience challenges that prevent them from regularly attending live performances and
vastly expanded our audiences, engaging more than 35,000 individuals in 34 countries. This broadening
of our audience has significantly increased our impact for local audience and beyond, furthering our goal
of pushing the boundaries of the operatic form while maintaining the centrality of our ethos and values:
that art should generate genuine community engagement and participate in authentic partnership with
collaborators, community members, and underrepresented artists as a form of justice.

 

About the Cardwell-Dawson Artist Fellowship
Fully launched in 2021, the Cardwell-Dawson Artist Fellowship provided the opportunities and support networks that emerging BIPOC artists need in order to develop into industry leaders, and from which artists of color are usually excluded. This unique four-year artist-incubator model fully engaged fellows in developing on-the-job workplace skills, filling the leading roles that are essential to building a sustainable career, and cultivating strong artistic networks.

 

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2024-25 SEASON SCHEDULE - * Casting and crew will be announced at a later date

ST JOHN THE BAPTIST  
Location: 340 Maple Drive, SW, Washington, DC
Dates: October 2-5, 2025

Location: Baltimore, Baltimore Theater Project
Dates: October 10-12, 2025

DELTA KING’S BLUES
Location: 340 Maple Drive, SW, Washington, DC
Dates: December 6-7, 12-14, 2025

Location: Baltimore, location tbd
Dates: December 19, 20, 21 2025

PASSION PLAYS - A Festival

FOR WOMEN SERVING TIME
Location: Dupont Underground, 19 Dupont Cir NW, Washington DC
Dates: March 21-23 2026

Location: Baltimore, Baltimore Theater Project
Dates: March 27-29, 2026

ONLY THE AIR (DC Shows only)
Location: Dupont Underground, 19 Dupont Cir NW, Washington DC
Dates: March 6-8, 2026

PASSIO (DC Shows only)
Location: Dupont Underground, 19 Dupont Cir NW, Washington DC
Dates: March 13-15, 2026

 

THE SONG OF SAKUNTALA
Location: 340 Maple Drive 
Dates: June 6, 7, 10, 12-14, 2026

Location: Baltimore, Baltimore Theater Project
Dates: June 19-21, 2026

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ABOUT IN SERIES
IN Series is the standard-bearer for innovative opera theater in Washington DC. We make theater from music: transforming artists, audiences, and community by disrupting expectations, nourishing empathy, stimulating insight, and deepening the conversation. IN Series envisions a thriving global community in which opera is a fully integrated and essential part of collective conversation. In picturing the journey to this end, IN Series is a change-maker – a force that, with each groundbreaking production and outreach event, radically transforms perceptions of the “who”, “what”, “where”, and “why” of opera: who gets to make opera and for whom is it made; what is defined as an operatic experience; where operas take place; why we make opera; and why opera matters.

Founded by Carla Hübner in 1982 as a concert series of the former Mount Vernon College, “The In Series” became an independent non-profit arts organization in 2000 and has been a resident company at Source Theater since 2008. Timothy Nelson assumed the artistic directorship in 2018, quickly establishing the newly rebranded “IN Series” as DC’s home for “Thought, debate, history, and innovation” (DC Metro Theatre Arts) in opera.

IN Series is supported in part by major funding from the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz, Dallas Morse Coors, Billy Rose, Paul M. Angell Family, and Revada Foundation of the Logan Family Foundations; Bloomberg Philanthropies; The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and National Endowment for the Arts; HumanitiesDC; Opera America.  We gratefully recognize the generous support of Share Fund, The William G Baker Jr Memorial Fund, Dimick, Eugene M. Lang, The Theodore H. Barth, John J. Leidy, Robert N. Alfandre, Sami & Totah, Deus ex Machina Family and M&T Foundations.