Summer Festival at Drottningholm Court Theatre

This summer, Drottningholm Court Theatre presents a festival of opera and concerts spanning from the Middle Ages, through the Renaissance, the Baroque, the Late Romantic period and to the present day. Throughout August, internationally renowned artists and ensembles will perform at the UNESCO World Heritage-listed theatre and the historic Drottningholm Palace Chapel.

"This year's Summer Festival celebrates the extraordinary richness of early music, from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, to the Baroque and beyond, revealing how this repertoire continues to resonate with audiences today. Alongside our main production, Claudio Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea, the programme brings together iconic masterpieces and rarely performed gems," says Francesco Corti, music director and conductor at Drottningholm Court Theatre.

Programme

L'incoronazione di Poppea
1–15 August
The centrepiece of Drottningholm Court Theatre's 2026 summer season is Claudio Monteverdi's final masterpiece, L'incoronazione di Poppea, from 1642. The libretto was written by Giovanni Francesco Busenello, one of the Baroque era's most distinguished librettists.

Barlaam and Josaphat
6 and 8 August
French-based Ensemble Dialogos presents the medieval tale of Josaphat and his teacher Barlaam, one of the most cherished legends of the Middle Ages. Through music drawn from Greek, Latin, Russian, Croatian, French, Occitan and Italian manuscripts, the performance traces the story's remarkable journey across cultures and centuries.

Under the direction of Katarina Livljanić, singer, musicologist and professor at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, Dialogos explores our enduring connection to the origins of European music. Since its founding in 1997, the ensemble has brought together singers and instrumentalists from a wide range of countries and artistic traditions to revive the oral and written musical heritage of medieval Europe and its enduring relevance today.

Death at Dawn
14 August
In Death at Dawn, Claudio Monteverdi's dramatic Baroque language meets Ottorino Respighi's lyrical twentieth-century sound world alongside new contemporary music. Monteverdi's Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda is paired with Respighi's Il tramonto, bringing together two composers separated by centuries yet united by timeless themes of love, passion and mortality. Despite their contrasting musical idioms, both composers share an extraordinary sensitivity to text and dramatic expression.

Boston Early Music Festival
17–18 August
Boston Early Music Festival returns to Drottningholm Court Theatre for an anticipated guest appearance with its acclaimed vocal and chamber ensembles. Bringing together some of the world's foremost specialists in early music from Europe and North America, the performances feature Grammy Award-winning soprano Amanda Forsyth with an exceptional lineup of singers and instrumentalists.

San Giovanni Battista
22–23 August
Drottningholm Court Theatre honours Her Majesty Queen Silvia's five decades as Queen of Sweden with performances of Alessandro Stradella's dramatic oratorio San Giovanni Battista. Stradella belonged to the artistic circle of Queen Kristina in Rome, and the concerts form part of the celebrations marking the 400th anniversary of her birth. A tribute from one queen to another.

Performed by a double orchestra, the work creates an immersive three dimensional soundscape with striking stereophonic effects. The performances are presented as a gift to Her Majesty the Queen from Drottningholm Court Theatre, Drottningholmteaterns Vänner, and the Theatre's generous benefactors.