Unicaja and the Fundación Ópera de Oviedo are once again collaborating in a new opera season, which will raise the curtain at the Teatro Campoamor starting on 12 September 12. In addition to the bank's contribution to the general program, as benefactor, Unicaja will also collaborate with the youth opera show based on Giuseppe Verdi's “Rigoletto”, which will take place at the Teatro Filarmónica de Oviedo at the end of December. “Rigolerdo”, which is the name of the new creation of the Oviedo Opera, is based on the most important passages of Verdi's popular opera and aims to conquer the youngest audiences through humor. This show is scheduled the same month that the season offers five performances of Verdi's work.
This has been reflected in an agreement signed by Unicaja’s regional manager North, Luis Manuel Taboada, and the president of the Fundación Ópera de Oviedo, Juan Carlos Rodríguez-Ovejero. Both institutions will collaborate to continue their commitment to the dissemination of the operatic genre by promoting the programming of the LXXVIII Opera Season of Oviedo, in addition to the development of social projects.
Juan Carlos Rodríguez-Ovejero, president of the Oviedo Opera, emphasized that “it is very important that an institution as important as Unicaja supports the promotion of culture and opera. It is a reflection of its commitment to Asturias and its sensitivity to enrich the society where it is based and developed. This year we will stage a new show aimed at the public we most need to conquer, and we do it thanks to the support of Unicaja. We have no doubt that it will be a huge success and a firm commitment to train the audience of the future”.
On behalf of Unicaja, Luis Manuel Taboada highlighted “the relevance of collaborating with the Fundación Ópera de Oviedo because, in addition to being a pillar of culture in Asturias, we contribute to the dissemination of music from the earliest ages by collaborating with the program and also sponsoring a show aimed at children”.
Based on the play “Rigoletto” by Giuseppe Verdi, the Teatro Filarmónica de Oviedo will host two sessions at the end of December of an adaptation for young audiences and children of Verdi's great opera with an educational proposal of lyrical knowledge and humor that will delight the whole family and that will review great myths and anecdotes of the lyrical history and the composition of the famous opera, one of the most performed in the world.
Likewise, Unicaja will collaborate during the 2025/2026 season with the Oviedo Opera and its consolidated cultural repercussion, through its co-productions with the main theaters and festivals, its participation in the main world opera forums and the numerous activities it carries out throughout the year to give value to the Asturian opera activity and its professionals. This support is part of Unicaja's sustainability strategy, which maintains its commitment to important cultural initiatives in its regions of origin.
Program: the Teatro Campoamor will host more tan twenty sessions of five opera productions
The 2025/2026 season of the Oviedo Opera will start on 12 September with the production of Engelbert Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel. With stage direction by the Asturian Raúl Vázquez and musical direction by Pablo González, the soprano Erika Baikoff and the mezzo-soprano Anna Harvey will play the leading roles alongside Stéphanie Müther. It will be performed on 12, 14, 17 and 20 September 2025.
On 10, 12, 15, 17 and 18 October, the stages of the Campoamor are getting ready to receive Gounod's popular opera “Roméo et Juliette”, based on Shakespeare's play. In this case, a co-production of the Oviedo Opera with ABAO Bilbao Opera, with stage direction by Giorgia Guerra and the performances of Ismael Jordi, Génesis Moreno or Régis Mengus.
Later, on 14, 16, 19 and 22 November, Oviedo receives for the first time a production of the opera “Orlando furioso” by Vivaldi, with musical direction by Aarón Zapico and in co-production with La Fenice of Venice and the Festival della Valle d'Itria.
“Rigoletto”, by Verdi, will be the next proposal, with musical direction by the Asturian Óliver Díaz and scene by the also Asturian Susana Gómez, in a new production of the Ópera de Oviedo. It will take place on 12, 14, 17, 19 and 20 December.
Finally, the program will culminate with “Carmen”, Bizet's opera that will mean, in this case, the debut of the Brazilian mezzo Marcela Rahal, as the main character, and with the direction of stage direction Emilio Sagi and, in the musical, Rubén Díez. It will be performed on 30 January and 1, 4, 6 and 7 February 2026.
