NODO – New Opera Days Ostrava 2026

The eighth biennial of the international New Opera Days Ostrava (NODO) festival will present seven opera productions during the last week of June. Six of them will feature music heard for the very first time, while the seventh opera had its recent premiere in Montreal.

Composers from the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic will come to Ostrava: Richard Ayres, Ana Sokolović, Elliott Sharp, Miroslav Tóth, Milan Guštar, Jakub Rataj, and Kristýna Švihálková. The stage will feature a range of soloists and production teams, conductors, members of the international Ostrava Band, the Canticum Ostrava choir, and dancers. The festival has been organized by the Ostrava Centre for New Music (OCNH) and the National Theatre of Moravia-Silesia (NDM) since 2012.

Performances will take place on the stages of the Antonín Dvořák Theatre and Jiří Myron Theatre, in the dilapidated complex of the former Palace Hotel in the city centre, on a meadow, and on tennis courts in the central Komenský Gardens.

The festival's dramaturgy explores themes of birth, love, memory, identity, loneliness, and hope.