Photos: PARSIFAL at the San Francisco Opera

San Francisco Opera's new production of Richard Wagner's Parsifal runs from October 25 through November 13 on the War Memorial Opera House stage, directed by Matthew Ozawa.

Company Chorus Director John Keene prepared the San Francisco Opera Chorus for Parsifal’s choral scenes featuring knights of the Holy Grail, seductive flower maidens and celestial voices.

Occupying Wagner for the last 25 years of his life, Parsifal premiered at the composer’s theater in Bayreuth, Germany, in 1882, six months before his death. The score marks the apex of the composer’s paradigm-shaping craft, with its variegated soundscape of textures, colors, melodic themes and suspended harmonies that intensify the emotional resonance of this story about finding enlightenment through compassion.

Parsifal marks the continuation of Eun Sun Kim’s exploration of Wagner’s works each season in San Francisco. Her Wagner journey began in 2023 with Lohengrin, the preparation for which was captured in the NorCal Emmy-nominated documentary Eun Sun Kim: A Journey Into Lohengrin.

"At a time when the world seems increasingly fractured, I believe Parsifal speaks directly to the crisis of disconnection so many of us feel," said Ozawa. "Its music and message reach into something primal — a longing for healing and meaning. As we participate together in this shared theatrical ritual, may we be reminded of the possibility of transformation —through empathy, through compassion and through art."

The creative team for Ozawa’s vision of Parsifal includes three collaborators from his critically acclaimed 2022 production of Gluck’s Orpheus and Eurydice for San Francisco Opera: costume designer Jessica Jahn, lighting designer Yuki Nakase Link and choreographer Rena Butler. Robert Innes Hopkins, who designed the Company’s productions of Tosca (2017, 2021), La Traviata (2022), The Elixir of Love (2023) and Tristan und Isolde (2024), is the set designer.

The international cast is headed by American tenor Brandon Jovanovich as Parsifal, the naïve youth who stumbles upon the knights of the Holy Grail and begins a hero’s journey of enlightenment. Among the world’s leading interpreters of Wagner’s heldentenor roles, Jovanovich made his role debuts as Froh in Das Rheingold, Siegmund in Die Walküre, the title role of Lohengrin and Walther in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg with San Francisco Opera.

German mezzo-soprano Tanja Ariane Baumgartner makes her Company debut as the mysterious Kundry. A frequent star with the Vienna State Opera, Baumgartner made headlines when she replaced an injured colleague as Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde at the 2024 Glyndebourne Festival.

South Korean bass Kwangchul Youn returns to the Company as the wise, elder knight, Gurnemanz, a role for which he is renowned and has performed around the world, including in Houston under Kim’s baton. Youn is scheduled to eclipse his 100th performance of the role while in San Francisco. Baritone Brian Mulligan portrays Amfortas, the Grail King who suffers from a wound that can only be healed through redemption. Mulligan has portrayed a variety of roles in his distinguished association with San Francisco Opera, including his recent role debut as Telramund in Lohengrin. Celebrated Wagnerian Falk Struckmann, who made his Company debut as Alberich in Wagner’s Ring cycle in 2018, portrays the sorcerer, Klingsor.

Knights of the Grail, Esquires and Flower Maidens are performed by Samuel White (First Knight), Jongwon Han (Second Knight), Elisa Sunshine (First Esquire/First Flower Maiden), Laura Krumm (Second Esquire/Third Flower Maiden), Christopher Oglesby (Third Esquire), Thomas Kinch (Fourth Esquire), Georgiana Adams (Second Flower Maiden), Jana McIntyre (Fourth Flower Maiden), Olivia Smith (Fifth Flower Maiden) and Caroline Corrales (Sixth Flower Maiden). Bass David Soar is Titurel, the former Grail King, and mezzo-soprano Nikola Printz is the Voice. Dancer Charmaine Butcher portrays Parsifal’s Mother.

See photos from the production below:

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