While it can boast a glorious past, Lisbon’s Teatro Nacional de São Carlos remains a low-key venue with a programme that European music lovers have been watching out for. The eighteenth-century theatre, located in the heart of the historic Chiado district, hosts only a handful of productions each season, as the institution has other, more modern venues at its disposal. With a concert version of Die Fledermaus and a semi-staged version of Trilogia das Barcas (a Portuguese opera by Joly Braga Santos), only three titles are staged: Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, which opened the season in October, Beethoven’s Fidelio, due to open in January 2024, and Verdi‘s truculent Falstaff, which will open in May 2024.

Discover Verdi’s Falstaff at Lisbon’s Teatro Nacional de São Carlos

Madama Butterfly octobre 2023 © TNSC/António Pedro Ferreira