23 MAY to 24 JUNE 2026
Almada, Portugal
Artistic Director: Filipe Pinto-Ribeiro

​​Festival dos Capuchos 2026
Amores & Humores 

Welcome to Festival dos Capuchos 2026!

After five editions of the Capuchos Festival which, since its revival in 2021, have established it as an event of excellence and a space for dialogue between cultures, eras, and artistic languages, we now propose a reflection on what is most intimate and universal to us: love and humors, affections and states of mind.

Under the theme “Love & Humors”, the Capuchos Festival 2026 draws inspiration from the duality and complementarity between love – in its many human and spiritual forms – and the “humors” of the soul, those subtle movements that oscillate between lyricism and irony, passion and invention, devotion and laughter.

Between May 23 and June 24, Almada once again becomes the stage for one of the country’s most significant cultural events. The concerts will take place at the Convento dos Capuchos, the spiritual heart of the Festival, as well as in other venues across the city, such as the Teatro Municipal Joaquim Benite, the Auditório Fernando Lopes-Graça, and the Parque da Paz, where, for the first time, an open-air opera gala will be held.

This edition features several international highlights: the return of the outstanding Consuelo Orchestra of Paris, leading the opening concert; the 30th anniversary performance of the acclaimed Austrian septet Mnozil Brass, dubbed the “Monty Python of classical music”; concerts by the Leipzig String Quartet, considered one of the world’s finest string quartets, and by the award-winning vocal group SLIXS, making their debut in Portugal. The Festival will also welcome world-renowned soloists, including the singers Anna Samuil, Peter Sonn, and Mandy Fredrich, the violinists Viviane Hagner and Diana Tishchenko, the cellists Christian Poltéra, Victor Julien-Laferrière, and Kyril Zlotnikov, the clarinetist Pascal Moraguès, and the pianist Eldar Nebolsin.

National presence is strongly represented by leading names such as the Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa, conducted by Pedro Neves, the DSCH Shostakovich Ensemble, in collaboration with the actress Maria Rueff, the Officium Ensemble, directed by Pedro Teixeira, the pianist Nuno Vieira de Almeida and the actress Rita Blanco, among others. Also noteworthy are two concerts exploring the intersection between jazz and fado, featuring the award-winning singer Maria Mendes, based for several years in the Netherlands, and the return to the Festival of pianist Júlio Resende and guitarist Bruno Chaveiro. True to its vocation, the Festival continues to serve as a platform for emerging talents, including in this edition the flutist Sónia Pais, the singer Raquel Mendes, the harpsichordist Rafaela Salgado, and the theorbist from Almada Mariana Santos.

In 2026, the now emblematic Capuchos Talks, curated by Carlos Vaz Marques, are dedicated to the centenary of the death of Camilo Pessanha, the 300th anniversary of the publication of “Gulliver’s Travels”, and to a literary reflection on the Festival’s theme.

Other parallel activities enrich the programme, such as the pre-concert talks, known as Capuchos Preludes; the Capuchos Walk, in the Protected Landscape of the Fossil Cliff of Costa da Caparica; the Guided Tour of the historical heritage of the Convento dos Capuchos; and the Capuchos Masterclasses, aimed at music students.

With particular enthusiasm, we present, for the second consecutive year, the initiative Opera for Children, this time featuring The Magic Flute, by Mozart, in a production directed by António Wagner Diniz.

The realization of the Capuchos Festival 2026 is made possible thanks, first and foremost, to the support of the Almada City Council, the patron “la Caixa” Foundation, in collaboration with BPI, and the Directorate-General for the Arts. Our thanks also go to the partners Companhia de Teatro de Almada, Âmbito Cultural do El Corte Inglés, and RTP Antena 2.

The Capuchos Festival 2026 spans eras and borders, between the sacred and the profane, the learned and the popular, Baroque and jazz, Romanticism and contemporary music. “Love & Humors” is, ultimately, a portrait of the human condition: we love, we suffer, we dream, we ironize, we celebrate. Music – perhaps the most subtle of the arts – is capable of expressing all these states with a truth that transcends words and brings us back to the essence of feeling.

We invite you to join us on this journey of emotions through the Capuchos Festival 2026 – where love and humor intertwine, and art leads us to the depth and beauty of life.

Filipe Pinto-Ribeiro
Capuchos Festival Artistic Director