From the Bolshoi Theatre and Trevor Noah to Amy Winehouse’s original band and Swan Lake on Ice, Dubai Opera is celebrating its first decade with an ambitious new season.
Since opening in August 2016, Dubai Opera has established itself as one of the UAE’s leading performing arts venues. The Downtown Dubai landmark has now welcomed more than 1.5 million visitors, staged over 2,500 performances and hosted more than 6,500 artists. To mark its 10th anniversary, the venue has unveiled a packed 2026-27 season spanning opera, ballet, classical music, contemporary concerts, theatre and comedy. Alongside international names and major touring companies, the programme also places Emirati music and regional talent firmly in the spotlight.
The Marriage of Figaro: 17 to 19 September 2026
Mozart’s comic masterpiece receives an unusual makeover when the Ukrainian National Ballet transforms The Marriage of Figaro into a full-length ballet. The production arrives during the 270th anniversary year of Mozart’s birth and follows Figaro and Susanna as romance, jealousy, disguise and mistaken identity unfold around Count Almaviva’s estate. Viktor Yaremenko and Yuri Stanishevsky created the libretto, while Oleksiy Baklan developed the musical edition. The result offers a different way to experience one of the composer’s best-known works.
Contact: https://dubai.platinumlist.net
To This Land, We Belong: 20 September 2026
One of the most significant additions to the current calendar focuses firmly on the UAE. To This Land, We Belong opens the UAE National Orchestra’s second season with three Emirati world premieres conducted by Ahmed Farag. Khalid Nassir’s six-part The Founder’s Journey explores the story of the nation’s beginnings, while Ali Kano’s Homeland Melodies pairs traditional instruments with an orchestra. Fayez Al Saeed completes the programme with a work incorporating poetry by Emirati writer Arif Al Khajah.
Contact: www.dubaiopera.com
God Save The Queen: 5 October 2026
Queen fans can revisit the stadium-sized sound of Freddie Mercury and company when tribute act God Save The Queen makes its Dubai debut. Led by Pablo Padín, the group has spent more than two decades recreating Queen’s concerts and has performed more than 1,000 shows around the world. The Dubai performance will move through the band’s defining catalogue, including “Bohemian Rhapsody”, “Radio Ga Ga”, “Somebody to Love” and “We Will Rock You”. Costume, staging and musical detail all form part of the production.
Contact: http://platinumlist.net
Marilyne Naaman: 6 October 2026
Lebanese singer and actress Marilyne Naaman is steadily becoming one of the region’s most interesting crossover performers. Her musical style combines Arabic influences with contemporary pop, while her appearance on The Voice France in 2023 introduced her to a wider international audience. Naaman has also developed an acting career across film and television, appearing in series including Aa Amal and Bil Dam. Her Dubai Opera concert offers a chance to hear songs such as “Nachez”, “5 Minutes” and “Lech Ma Bterjaa?” live.
Contact: http://platinumlist.net
The Amy Winehouse Band: 8 October 2026
Two decades after the release of Back to Black, musicians who performed alongside Amy Winehouse are celebrating one of modern music’s most distinctive voices. The Amy Winehouse Band is led by the singer’s long-time musical director, bassist and close friend Dale Davis, alongside original musicians from her touring and studio years. A female vocalist selected by Davis leads songs from Frank, Back to Black and Lioness: Hidden Treasures, with “Rehab”, “Valerie”, “Tears Dry on Their Own” and the title track among the likely highlights.
Contact: http://platinumlist.net
Mohandis Al Thauq Al Aam: 9 & 10 October 2026
Family life provides the comic fuel for this Arabic-language Gulf theatre production. Mohandis Al Thauq Al Aam follows a couple preparing for their first child as excitement gives way to misunderstandings, emotional swings and increasingly chaotic situations. At the centre of the story is their dream that their unborn child might someday become a “public taste engineer”, giving the play its unusual title. The production mixes domestic comedy with social observations, offering a lighter regional counterpoint to the season’s concerts, opera and ballet.
Contact: http://platinumlist.net
Dubai Comedy Festival: 9 & 18 October 2026
The seventh Dubai Comedy Festival takes over the city for 10 days, with more than 40 shows and over 50 performers across several venues. Dubai Opera plays a major role in the programme, hosting Munawar Faruqui, Mo Gilligan, Katherine Ryan, Zarna Garg, John Achkar and Amit Tandon. Shows move between English, Arabic and Hindi, reflecting the festival’s increasingly international outlook. Highlights include Gilligan’s The Mo You Know tour, Garg’s Million Dollar Excuses and Achkar’s deeply personal Arabic-language show Feena? Nehke. With FACT onboard as the official media partner, prepare for ten days of laughter.
Contact: www.dubaicomedyfest.ae
Gipsy Kings Symphonic: 22 October 2026
The music of the Gipsy Kings receives an orchestral transformation for this Dubai performance. Led by André Reyes, a founder of the group that helped take rumba flamenca to global audiences, the concert combines acoustic guitars and distinctive vocals with sweeping symphonic arrangements. Familiar tracks such as “Bamboleo”, “Djobi Djoba”, “Volare” and “Un Amor” will be reworked on a larger scale. It marks the act’s first symphonic project on a theatre stage following several previous sold-out appearances in Dubai.
Contact: http://platinumlist.net
Titizé: A Venetian Dream: 29 to 31 October 2026
Venice becomes the inspiration for a theatrical fantasy from Compagnia Finzi Pasca. Titizé: A Venetian Dream combines acrobatics, physical theatre, clowning, aerial performance and live music, with 10 performers creating scenes inspired by masks, waterways, mirrors and hidden corners of the Italian city. More than 100,000 people have already seen the production internationally. Rather than following a conventional narrative, it uses movement, illusion and visual storytelling to blur the boundaries between circus, dance and contemporary theatre.
Contact: http://platinumlist.net
Benjamin Clementine: 1 November 2026
Few contemporary performers are quite like Benjamin Clementine. The British singer, pianist and composer blends experimental pop, contemporary classical music and jazz around a dramatic vocal style and expressive piano playing. His debut album, At Least for Now, won the Mercury Prize in 2015, while subsequent records including I Tell a Fly and And I Have Been have pushed his music into increasingly unconventional territory.
Contact: http://platinumlist.net
Trevor Noah: 25, 26, 28 & 29 November 2026
Trevor Noah is swapping arenas for a considerably more intimate setting. The former host of The Daily Show was initially announced for two nights at Dubai Opera, but demand has already resulted in additional performances on 28 and 29 November. Known for observational comedy that explores politics, identity, travel, language and culture, Noah has developed a global audience through television, books, Netflix specials and international tours. With FACT Magazine as the media partner, the smaller auditorium should offer a different dynamic from his previous large-scale UAE appearances.
Hiba Tawaji & Ibrahim Maalouf: 27 November 2026
Hiba Tawaji and Ibrahim Maalouf unite for an intriguing one-night collaboration inspired by French musical culture. À La Française mixes chanson, jazz, classical influences and contemporary sounds, pairing Tawaji’s expansive vocals with Maalouf’s distinctive trumpet playing and compositions. Tawaji performed at the reopening of Notre-Dame de Paris in 2024 and has collaborated with artists including Andrea Bocelli. Maalouf is a two-time Grammy nominee whose collaborators range from Sting and Wynton Marsalis to Angélique Kidjo and A$AP Rocky.
Contact: http://platinumlist.net
The Tsar’s Bride: 2 December 2026
The Bolshoi Theatre begins its first official UAE tour with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Tsar’s Bride. Set during the reign of Ivan the Terrible, the opera centres on Marfa, whose selection as a prospective bride for the tsar triggers jealousy, rivalry and tragedy. Rimsky-Korsakov’s score combines rich orchestration with intensely lyrical vocal writing, while the story moves between romance and political intrigue. The performance marks a major moment for Dubai Opera, introducing one of Russia’s most famous cultural institutions to the UAE in an official touring capacity.
Contact: www.dubaiopera.com
Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra: 3 December 2026
The second evening of the Bolshoi Theatre’s UAE residency shifts attention from the stage to the orchestra pit. Musicians from the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra will headline a standalone symphonic concert, giving audiences a chance to hear the ensemble away from an opera or ballet production. The performance forms part of the company’s five-day Dubai programme and celebrates the Russian orchestral tradition associated with the Bolshoi.
Contact: www.dubaiopera.com
The Nutcracker: 4 to 6 December 2026
Dubai’s festive calendar gets a heavyweight addition when the Bolshoi Theatre stages Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker. Yuri Grigorovich’s choreography follows Marie from a family Christmas celebration into a dreamlike world of toys, magic and romance, accompanied by one of ballet’s most recognisable scores. Principal dancers from the Bolshoi Ballet will perform alongside the company’s orchestra, giving the production considerable scale. With its snow-filled fantasy, celebrated choreography and familiar music, the ballet should be one of the season’s biggest family draws.
Contact: www.dubaiopera.com
Enrico Macias: 10 December 2026
Another addition to Dubai Opera’s live calendar sees Enrico Macias return to the emirate for an evening spanning more than six decades of music. The French-Algerian singer has built an international career around songs rooted in love, memory, migration and Mediterranean musical traditions. The concert will revisit classics from across his extensive catalogue and is being positioned as one of the veteran artist’s final international appearances, with organisers suggesting it may also be his last Dubai performance.
Contact: http://platinumlist.net
Guy Manoukian: 11 December 2026
Guy Manoukian has his own milestone to celebrate. The Lebanese-Armenian pianist and composer will make his 10th appearance at Dubai Opera after nine previous sold-out performances at the venue. His concerts typically combine original compositions with oriental melodies, contemporary arrangements and interpretations of Arab musical icons such as Fairouz and Abdel Halim Hafez, alongside international jazz standards. Returning during Dubai Opera’s own 10th anniversary year creates a neat symmetry for an artist who has become one of the venue’s most frequent musical guests.
Contact: http://platinumlist.net
Denis Matsuev: 16 December 2026
Classical precision and jazz improvisation meet when pianist Denis Matsuev performs Classics & Jazz. Known for his formidable technique and powerful playing style, Matsuev will be joined by double bassist Andrey Ivanov, cellist Borislav Strulev, domra player Ekaterina Mochalova, drummer David Tkebuchava and saxophonist Sofia Turina. Rather than presenting a conventional solo recital, the programme moves between classical repertoire and jazz-driven rhythms, allowing Matsuev to display a more playful side of his musicianship while placing several unusual instrumental combinations on the Dubai Opera stage.
Contact: https://platinumlist.net
Abracadabra: 18 & 19 December 2026
Things get decidedly chaotic in Abracadabra. The Gulf theatre comedy centres on two struggling theatrical companies facing financial difficulties and dwindling prospects. In an effort to revive their fortunes, they decide to stage a production inside an abandoned theatre, only for strange incidents and unforeseen complications to derail the plan. Suspense, misunderstandings and comic situations gradually turn the rescue mission into a much larger adventure. Presented in Arabic, the show taps into the traditions of Gulf theatre while also playing with the backstage mechanics of putting on a performance.
Contact: https://platinumlist.net
Tony Ann: 10 January 2027
Social media has helped pianist Tony Ann turn contemporary instrumental music into a global phenomenon. The Canadian composer has accumulated more than one billion views and 300 million streams, fuelled partly by his viral #playthatword series. His work combines classical technique with cinematic contemporary piano, while his songwriting credits also include The Chainsmokers tracks Sick Boy and Call You Mine. Dubai marks another stop on his international touring journey, with genre-crossing string duo ARKAI joining him as the supporting act.
Contact: https://platinumlist.net
Swan Lake On Ice: 14 to 17 January 2027
The season concludes by placing one of ballet’s most famous stories on ice. The Imperial Ice Stars reinterpret Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake using a company of 24 elite skaters whose combined competitive records include more than 250 Olympic, World, European and national championship medals. Figure skating replaces traditional pointe work, while aerial lifts, circus techniques, snowfall, fog effects and theatrical costumes add extra spectacle. Odette, Prince Siegfried and Rothbart remain at the heart of the story, but the physical vocabulary is completely transformed.
Where: Dubai Opera, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Boulevard, Downtown Dubai
Contact: www.dubaiopera.com