Piedmont Opera Announces NC Premieres of Heggie Double Bill

Piedmont Opera will stage the North Carolina premieres of two operas by composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer for six performances between Nov. 12 and 22, 2026, at Hanesbrands Theatre.

The double bill — "Another Sunrise" and "Before It All Goes Dark" — continues the company's 50th Anniversary Season and brings two of the leading voices in contemporary American opera to Winston-Salem.

"Another Sunrise" tells the story of Krystyna Żywulska, a Holocaust survivor, writer and resistance member whose poems and songs became acts of defiance during her imprisonment at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

"Before It All Goes Dark" follows Gerald "Mac" McDonald, a Vietnam veteran who discovers a previously unknown Jewish family history and a Holocaust-era legacy stolen from his family.

What do the premieres mean for the season?

The productions cap an anniversary season that opened with Renée Fleming. In a statement, Joseph Mechavich, General Director of Piedmont Opera, framed the double bill as part of a season-long conversation with major living artists.

"From Renée Fleming's opening of our anniversary season to the extraordinary storytelling of Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer, we are bringing Winston-Salem audiences into direct conversation with some of the most important artists working in opera today," Mechavich said. "Having Jake and Gene here with us makes these North Carolina premieres especially meaningful."

Who is staging the works?

Tonya McKinny will direct. Ryan McKinny will star.

Both operas center on 20th-century histories of war, memory and restitution, themes that have made the Heggie-Scheer collaboration a fixture of contemporary American repertoire.

With six performances across eleven days, the run gives Winston-Salem audiences the first chance in the state to see both works — and positions the 50th-anniversary season as a showcase for new American opera rather than a purely retrospective celebration.