Bonnie 'Prince' Billy and Manuel Cavaco return in the new season of S. Luiz

After performing at the Luis Miguel Cintra hall in 2014 to open the first edition of Vale Perdido, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy returns to the same stage on November 10th to inaugurate the third edition with a concert that, for the artistic director of S. Luiz, Miguel Loureiro, "is certainly one of the highlights of the new season".

Musician Will Oldham, better known as Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, "continues to surprise as one of the authors of our time" , Miguel Loureiro told the Lusa news agency, showing himself to be "very happy and proud" with the North American musician's return to the stage.

Before performing at S. Luiz, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, whose latest work is 'The purple bird', will also give concerts at Ponto C, in Penafiel (November 8) and at Gnration, in Braga, on the 9th, the Portuguese promoter of the musician's shows told Lusa.

In the 2025/2026 season, Teatro S. Luiz will host opera, music, dance, conversations, theater, public space, circus, cinema, photography and magic shows, totaling 103 performing arts projects with more than 100 presentations.

Of the total, 22 shows are premieres, 36 are musical concerts, 32 theater shows, three dance shows, two circus shows, two opera shows, one magic show and three music festivals (Misty Fest, Miso-Music and the 100 Years of Berio Theater-Music Festival), in addition to shows from the Puppet and Animated Forms Festival (FIMFA).

The program also includes 12 thought sessions, 11 guided theater tours, four literature sessions, a film cycle, and a photography exhibition.

A program "to have a city center, a musical Chiado" with a program that is "very celebratory in that sense," Miguel Loureiro stressed to Lusa.

The new season at S. Luiz opens with a play by João Garcia Miguel, 'Discoverers of Love', based on Camões, which will be on stage from September 13th to 28th, in the Mário Viegas room.

The priority of the new season, especially in autumn, is music, with two concerts commemorating Tim's 50-year career, "another highlight of the season", the concerts "Jupiter and the transfigured night", by the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra (September 26), the concert cycle of the Theatre-Music Festival 100 years of Luciano Berio, dedicated to the Italian composer who marked contemporaneity, and the concert "Between labyrinths and constellations", by the Portuguese Chamber Orchestra (September 30).

The performance of the period orchestra Os Músicos do Tejo, a concert by the Ensemble D'Arcos, with Camané and Catarina Molder performing 'Vanessa', an opera in its Portuguese premiere by Samuel Barber, are other of the many shows highlighted by the artistic director of the theater in Lusa.

Also in autumn, a highlight will be a tribute to the writer Ivette K. Centeno (October 4), 'On the path you tread, what trail you leave', which will bring together guests such as Ana Zanatti, António Lagarto, Clara Andermatt, Cristina Carvalhal, Cucha Carvalheiro, Jorge Reis-Sá, Luís Madureira, Luís Tinoco (with a choir of eight singers), Minnie Freudenthal, Nazaré da Silva, Nuno Vieira de Almeida, Pedro Chorão and Rui Zink, among others.

In addition to music, theater is another of the "central axes" of the S. Luiz program, which focuses on bringing to the Luis Miguel Cintra room "young names and young creators who are establishing their discourse", according to Miguel Loureiro.

As an example, he mentioned names such as Tiago Mateus, Alice Azevedo, Tita Maravilha, Flávio Gil and Mário Coelho, among others.

Among the theater premieres is 'A Stranger in a Strange Land', a text by Tiago Ribeiro Patrício and Manuel Wiborg based on Robert A. Heinlein, which brings Manuel Cavaco back to the stage, years after his last play at the Teatro Experimental de Cascais (TEC).

Theater premieres include 'Oleanna', by David Mamet, directed by Carlos Pimenta (December 6), "Justiça cega", by Sara Castro (January 28) and 'John Gabriel Borkman', an Ibsen classic, directed by Joaquim Horta.

From March 18th to 29th, it will be the turn of 'Todos Pássaros', a play by Canadian-Lebanese actor, playwright, and theater director Wajdi Mouawad, one of "the most performed living playwrights today and one of the most produced in France," said Miguel Loureiro. Directed by Álvaro Correia.

'Camino Real', a classic by Tennessee Williams, by auéééu, in April 2026, and the debut of Elmano Sancho in that Chiado hall, also in April, with the play 'D. Juan ou a queda de um mito', based on Molière, are among the texts that also feature in the program.

Throughout the 2025-2026 season, in which "the international component is more widespread in music, with proposals ranging from improvised to classical, jazz or pop, than in theater", as Miguel Loureiro mentioned, Divino Sospiro and the Jovem Orquestra Portuguesa will also perform at the S. Luiz Carlos Zíngaro.

The complete Schumann Symphonies, by the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra, the premiere of the opera 'Paraíso', by Miguel Azguime, and a concert by Simão Costa, with the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra, conclude the 2025-2026 season.

A photography exhibition, which will last four months with works by photographer Estelle Valente, a former collaborator of the theater, entitled 'S. Luiz an intimate portrait', to be inaugurated on World Theater Day, is another of S. Luiz's proposals.

The full season schedule will be available on the theater's website.

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