The celebration takes place across two National Historic Landmarks, with a concert at the Academy of Music followed by dinner at Reading Terminal Market

Opera Philadelphia’s 2025-2026 Season will launch on Saturday, September 13, with Vox Ex Machina, a 50th Anniversary celebration that promises several unique takes on the traditional performing arts gala. The celebration will link two beloved National Historic Landmarks located in Philadelphia, beginning with a technologically innovative concert at the Academy of Music starring five renowned opera singers, followed by dinner at Reading Terminal Market.

The anniversary concert will feature opera luminaries who have a rich history with the company, including mezzo Stephanie Blythe (Tancredi, Dito & Aeneas), soprano Nicole Heaston (The Listeners), baritone Will Liverman (Charlie Parker’s Yardbird, The Love for Three Oranges, 10 Days in a Madhouse), mezzo Daniela Mack (Carmen, Elizabeth Cree, Otello), and the General Director himself, countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo (Phaedra, Written on Skin, Glass Handel). In a unique synesthetic  experience, each singer’s aria will become a physical painting in real time before the audience’s eyes, harnessing bold new technology to marry music and visual art.

“For 50 years, Opera Philadelphia has made art at the highest level, and as we continue to honor tradition and innovate, we are thrilled to celebrate this momentous milestone  with Vox Ex Machina,” said Costanzo. “This gala will be unlike anything you’ve been to before: a dynamic culmination of music, history, art, food with some of classical music’s brightest stars, marrying their voices to technology and visual art. I can’t wait to welcome everyone in Philadelphia, whether you’ve been to the opera 50 times or you’ve never been here before, to join in this anniversary celebration and the incredible season that we’re about to embark upon together.”

In the winter of 2025, Opera Philadelphia partnered with Drexel University’s ExCITe Center and artist and creative technologist Daniel Belquer to launch a course with the goal of creating a machine that could take variables such as pitch, volume, and vibrato from a singer’s performance and paint a canvas in response to an aria as it unfolds. The audience will see these sonic visual representations materialize during this one-of-a-kind concert.