Dua Lipa Stuns at the Met Opera Premiere of Her 2024 Book Club Pick

By Nico Grey · Published Oct 20, 2026, 10:21 AM (BKK)

Two years ago she told her book club it was one of her favorite books of all time. On Monday night, Dua Lipa watched it become an opera. The pop superstar, 31, hit the Metropolitan Opera’s opening-night gala in New York for the world premiere of “Lincoln in the Bardo,” the opera based on George Saunders’ Booker Prize-winning novel. She walked the red carpet solo in a Ferragamo dress from the label’s Spring/Summer 2027 show, Just Jared reports, and a video posted by Page Six shows her arriving hand in hand with husband Callum Turner. The detail most red-carpet coverage skipped: “Lincoln in the Bardo” was Dua’s own Service95 Book Club pick in October 2024.

See the look: the official posts

Page Six and E! News posted the red-carpet photos and video, Page Six caught the couple arriving hand in hand, and InStyle filmed her entrance.

The Ferragamo look, up close

Just Jared confirms the label and that the dress debuted on Ferragamo’s SS27 ready-to-wear runway. Here is what the Page Six photos show. Thin straps hold up a straight black band across the bust. Below it, the dress is covered in oversized black paillettes, with a few teal ones that catch the flash. The paillettes sit over a sheer black base that opens into a thigh-high slit. Matching sheer sleeves, also covered in paillettes, are worn separately and pushed off the shoulder. She kept the rest simple: hair slicked back into a tight bun and a dark manicure, posing in front of the production’s painted graveyard backdrop.

It is at least her third Ferragamo moment since August. In August she wore a custom black viscose jersey gown with semi-sheer panels to Callum’s “One Night Only” premiere in New York, USA Today reported. In early October, theFashionSpot covered her plunging SS27 Ferragamo dress with huge waist cutouts in Paris. Both of those looks were sleek and close to the body. Monday’s dress is the first one built around movement and shine.

Why this premiere was personal: her 2024 book club pick

On October 3, 2024, Dua announced “Lincoln in the Bardo” as her Monthly Read on her Service95 site. She called it “truly epic” and “up there as one of my favourite books of all time,” and wrote that “the last page still plays on repeat in my mind.” She also sat down with Saunders himself for a Service95 Book Club interview, where she told him: “I guess people say you shouldn’t meet your heroes. But I feel so lucky to be sat here speaking to you today.” Two years later, almost to the month, she was in the audience as the book reached the Met stage.

Saunders was there on Monday too. Page Six‘s gallery shows him on the carpet with his family. No outlet has reported whether he and Dua met up inside, so that part stays unknown for now.

Dua did explain what pulls her to opera. “Opera really just touches on all our human emotions, you know, love and grief and loss and ambition and hope and all these things that makes it so special. So I think it’s just about surrendering and I love that,” she said at the Met, per Just Jared.

Her opera era: La Scala last month, the Met now

This wasn’t a one-off. OperaWire reports Monday was her second opera night in a month. In September she saw “La Traviata” at Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, her first time at the theater. OperaWire adds that Met general manager Peter Gelb had hinted weeks earlier that she was excited to attend this opening.

The guest list was a lot of fun for an opera premiere. Page Six’s gallery shows Amy Poehler, Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers, Kate Walsh, Gina Gershon with Laurie Anderson, Julio Torres and Dev Hynes. Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducted, with baritone Peter Mattei as Lincoln, according to the Met.

A newlyweds’ night out

Dua and Callum married on June 6 in Palermo, Sicily, so Monday came about four months into their marriage, per Just Jared. Callum has had a big year on screen as well. He stars in “Rosebush Pruning,” which premiered in competition at the Berlinale in February with Riley Keough, Elle Fanning, Pamela Anderson and Jamie Bell, and Dua went to Berlin with him for that premiere.

Want to see it? The remaining dates

Monday was only opening night. The Met lists eight more performances of “Lincoln in the Bardo”: October 24, 26, 29 and 31, and November 3, 7, 11 and 14. The story takes place over one night in 1862, as President Lincoln grieves in a graveyard full of restless spirits.

FAQ

What did Dua Lipa wear to the Met Opera gala?

A Ferragamo dress from the Spring/Summer 2027 ready-to-wear show, according to Just Jared. In the Page Six photos it is black and covered in paillettes, worn with separate sheer sleeves and a thigh-high slit.

What is the opera Lincoln in the Bardo?

A new opera by composer Missy Mazzoli with a libretto by Royce Vavrek, based on George Saunders’ 2017 novel. The Met commissioned it with The Santa Fe Opera, and director Lileana Blain-Cruz drew on Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington, D.C. for the staging.

When did Dua Lipa and Callum Turner get married?

On June 6, 2026, in Palermo, Sicily, according to Just Jared.

How long is Lincoln in the Bardo at the Met?

About 2 hours 40 minutes with one intermission. It is sung in English with Met Titles, and the Met suggests it for ages 13 and up.

What do you think? Dua’s paillette Ferragamo: her best look of the year so far? Tell us on X @celeb124.

Photos: Callum Turner and Dua Lipa at Berlinale 2026 (card and story graphic) by Harald Krichel, CC BY-SA 4.0; Dua Lipa at Berlinale 2026 by Harald Krichel, CC BY-SA 4.0; Callum Turner and Dua Lipa at Berlinale 2026 by Celestinesucess, CC BY-SA 4.0; Dua Lipa on the Radical Optimism Tour, Manila 2024 by Patrick Cristiano, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons). Archive photos, not from the events described.

Sources

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