The artistic directors of all four ensembles of the National Theatre in Prague have announced the performance schedule for the 143rd theatre season. The diverse programme includes not only Czech classics but also international masterpieces. However, the theatre faces a particular challenge as it will temporarily be without the New Scene stage, which is set to undergo extensive renovations at the end of the current season.
Audiences can look forward to seven new opera productions: Mozart’s Idomeneo, Ostrčil’s Legend of Erin, Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites, and Václav Trojan’s children’s opera Carousel. In 2026, it will be 150 years since Richard Wagner opened his Festspielhaus in Bayreuth (1876), originally built for the performance of Parsifal, which was still unfinished at the time. The festival also presented the first complete staging of the famous Ring des Nibelungen cycle. The National Theatre and the Prague State Opera will celebrate this anniversary with consecutive performances of the entire Ring des Nibelungen tetralogy (2026–2028) and a new production of Parsifal (2026).
The new drama repertoire features six titles: Frankenstein by Mary W. Shelley, The Parson’s End by Josef Škvorecký and Evald Schorm, Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, Dürrenmatt’s The Meteor, and an independent project by Maria Wojtyszko and Jakub Krofta. Developed in co-production with the J. Słowacki National Theatre in Kraków, this project bears the provocative title The Unexpected Victory of the Polish-Czech Union in the Third World War. While this season has highlighted young directors, the upcoming season will primarily showcase established artists from the Czech Republic and abroad.
The National Theatre Ballet will present several remarkable premieres in the 2025/26 season. The season will open with the ballet classic Liliom, choreographed by John Neumeier. Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, choreographed by Youri Vámos, will be traditionally performed during the Christmas period. In spring, the premiere of the composed evening Avant-Garde: Cutting Edge will feature two world premieres by Robert Bondara and Marco Goecke, alongside Jiří Kylián’s masterpiece 27’52”. The highlight of the season will be an evening dedicated to the legendary choreographer George Balanchine, titled Who Cares?. This production brings together two of his key works—Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet and Who Cares?—both exemplifying the timeless elegance and essence of neoclassical ballet.
During the renovation of the New Scene (Nová scéna), performances of Laterna Magika will be staged at the Estates Theatre and other Prague venues, including La Fabrika in Holešovice. There, artistic director Radim Vizváry is planning the world premiere of his own production, In the Park. Meanwhile, Miřenka Čechová and Petr Boháč are developing an elaborate multimedia production, Baron Münchhausen, for the Estates Theatre, incorporating film projections, hyper-realistic puppetry, and live music.
Detailed information on individual premieres and accompanying programmes is available in the 2025/26 season brochure and on the National Theatre website.
Národní divadlo (Czech National Theatre)
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