Just before midnight Friday, the Boston Lyric Opera announced that it severing its relationship with the Citi Performing Arts Center Shubert Theatre, the company’s principal stage for nearly 20 years.

The final performance of "La Boheme" will take place as scheduled Saturday night at the Schubert.

The BLO decision was announced just days after two other performance-related shockers: first, Boston University announced that it was terminating what had been a fructifying 33 year partnership with the Huntington Theatre; next came the news that Emerson’s Colonial Theatre may not continue as a performance space.

Here is the statement issued by the Lyric:

Today the leadership team of the Boston Lyric Opera took an extraordinary step for the future of the company and decided not to renew a contract with the Citi Performing Arts Center Shubert Theatre, our main stage for nearly two decades.  We will have a new venue for our 40th Season beginning in the fall of 2016; our spring 2016 productions of Werther and The Merry Widow will be presented at the Shubert Theatre.

Much of our success in the last decade is due to an emphasis on excellent artistic choices and sound business and financial decisions.  Our choice to leave the Shubert represents a mix of those two considerations.  It came after lengthy discussions with Citi Performing Arts Center and deliberation by a working group of board members and executive staff.  I am confident we made the right choice for our continued fiscal and artistic success, and – most importantly – for the experience of our patrons and artists.

For many years we have known that the best location for our work would be a facility in Boston with acoustical and physical elements appropriate to world-class opera productions.  Until such a facility is available, Boston Lyric Opera’s “Opera Annex” productions have proved we can transform any space into an exciting experience.  Our commitment to producing great art will not change.  We expect to announce soon an exciting new location for our full 2016/2017 Season.

The board and staff of Boston Lyric Opera sincerely thank Josiah Spaulding and the Shubert Theatre staff for 18 great years.  We look forward to taking the next step on our path to a facility suitable for New England's largest opera company.

The statement was signed by Esther Nelson, Stanford Calderwood General & Artistic Director.