Opera, chamber music and advanced training at Palazzo Corsini al Prato
Florence is preparing to welcome a new musical season that brings tradition and modernity into dialogue, uniting education and performance, emerging talents and established artists. From February to May, Mascarade Opera presents its Spring 2026 Concert Season, transforming the Palazzo Corsini al Prato into a vibrant hub of cultural production and public engagement.
The programme consists of four events that are open to the city, conceived as stages in a unified journey spanning opera, chamber music and advanced artistic training. At its core lies a clear vision: to offer high-level musical experiences within an intimate and accessible setting, deeply rooted in Florence’s historical and cultural fabric.
“This season reflects the New Generation Foundation’s vision to create musical experiences of the highest quality that are at once intimate, accessible and profoundly connected to Florence,” says Roger Granville, Executive Chairman and Co-Founder of the New Generation Foundation and Mascarade Opera. “Bringing performance, education and historic heritage into dialogue means investing not only in artists, but also in current and future audience members.”
The season opens on Thursday 26 February 2026 with Dreams and Dualities, an operatic evening exploring the subtle boundary between dream and reality through selected scenes from three masterpieces of the operatic repertoire: Il viaggio a Reims by Gioachino Rossini, Le nozze di Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Les contes d’Hoffmann by Jacques Offenbach. Set at the Palazzo Corsini al Prato, the production is directed by Andrea Bernard, renowned for his work at major international theatres and recently featured at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. Conceived as an immersive experience, the evening brings together opera, visual arts and conviviality, with the public welcomed in advance and invited to visit works by contemporary artists through a collaboration with Pneuma Art Foundation.
The second event, on Saturday 21 March 2026, is dedicated to chamber music with Fantasiestücke, a concert by Trio Mascarade. In the Concert Hall of the Palazzo Corsini al Prato, music by Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann and Felix Mendelssohn forms a programme that journeys through European Romanticism, characterised by lyricism, imagination and expressive intensity. The performers are Julia Lynch, pianist and Artistic Director of Mascarade Opera, alongside violinist Tijmen Huisingh and clarinettist Ross Montgomery. Once again, the intimate scale of the venue and its welcoming atmosphere foster a close listening experience, in which music and architecture enter into a natural dialogue.
In May, Mascarade Opera invites audiences to step behind the curtain and discover how opera is made, through a special event celebrating artistic training and the sharing of musical knowledge at the heart of its mission.
On Wednesday 13 May 2026, The Mascarade Masterclass Series begins with a public masterclass led by internationally renowned mezzo-soprano Marina Prudenskaya, alongside Mascarade Opera’s Artistic Director Julia Lynch, featuring singers from the Mascarade Opera emerging artists programme. The audience is invited to observe the daily work of the opera singer: role preparation, textual interpretation and the dialogue between voice and piano, offering a rare glimpse into the creative process.
The following day, Thursday 14 May 2026, Prudenskaya and Lynch return to the stage for a recital that completes the journey from teaching to performance. In an intimate setting, the audience encounters an artist whose career spans the world’s leading opera houses, from Vienna to Berlin, from Paris to London, reaffirming the international scope of the season.
With tickets starting from €10 and an access policy attentive to younger audiences, Mascarade Opera’s Spring 2026 Concert Season presents itself as an open cultural project, capable of combining artistic excellence, education and the enhancement of historic heritage, by offering Florence a new space for listening, discovery and shared musical experience.
Tickets available on Evients and Classictic
Info: info@mascaradeopera.com