Studio 2 Extra: Opera Philadelphia's Anthony Roth Costanzo talks new season

Just over a year ago, on June 1, 2024, Anthony Roth Costanzo became general director and president of Opera Philadelphia. The Grammy-winning countertenor faced immediate financial challenges, tackling the company’s debt by implementing a seemingly counterintuitive solution: $11 tickets. 

A year later, Costanzo reports the opera is the only sold-out company in America. 

As the tickets are selling en masse and quickly, Costanzo explains his reasoning behind the $11-Pick Your Price tickets. He says it brings a lot of first-time spectators into the seats at three different locations along the Avenue of the Arts – and what is better than the energy of a sold-out venue?

This year, a new location will make its debut – the Wannamaker building at 100 East Penn Square. The building, home to the world’s second-largest functioning pipe organ, will debut with “Meet Me at the Eagle” on September 7 at 1 p.m. 

Costanzo curated a season blending established and new works, aiming to reinvent opera. “I wanted to keep [Opera Philadelphia] going, move it into the future, and make us a national leader in innovation,” he said. 

Another highlight of the new season is the U.S. debut of Olivier Award-winning director Damiano Michieletto (“the bad boy of opera,” as coined on Studio 2), who will stage Rossini’s Il viaggio a Reims on September 19. Asked about potential mischief, Costanzo teased, “If you don’t have your tickets, how will you ever know?” 

The 2025-26 season, titled Opera, but Different, kicks off in September.

Listen to the full interview with Anthony Roth Costanzo and Cherri Gregg and find out why the audience screamed at him during the first Pick Your Price performance.