San Francisco Opera Will Celebrate Pride With Concert Hosted By Sapphira Cristál
The event is on Friday, June 26.
San Francisco Opera will celebrate the LGBTQIA+ community on the eve of San Francisco's Pride Weekend with the second annual Pride Concert and post-show dance party on Friday, June 26 at the War Memorial Opera House. Sapphira Cristál, the classically trained opera singer, composer and drag queen known for her theatrical lip syncs and six-octave range, returns as hostess for the evening. Conductor Robert Mollicone leads the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and soloists Melody Moore, Nikola Printz and Reginald Smith, Jr. in a concert blending opera, Broadway and beloved songs.
Sapphira Cristál (runner-up and Miss Congeniality of RuPaul's Drag Race Season 16) is renowned as a charismatic host who forges a special connection with her audiences. A guest artist in Madonna's Celebration Tour, she debuted her original operatic production, Soundcake, with Monét X Change and Thorgy Thor at Lincoln Center and brought her one-woman show, The Cristál Ball Tour, across North America.
Robert Mollicone conducts the concert program with soloists Melody Moore, whose appearances with San Francisco Opera include the title role of Tosca, Susan Rescorla in the world premiere of Christopher Theofanidis' Heart of a Soldier, Mimì in La Bohème and Mother Marie in Dialogues of the Carmelites; versatile artist and mezzo-soprano Nikola Printz, who recently portrayed Jade Boucher in San Francisco Opera's 25th-anniversary production of Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking and who originated the role of Billie Jean King in Laura Karpman's Balls with Opera Parallèle and in their London debut at the Royal Festival Hall; and Grammy and Emmy Award-winning baritone Reginald Smith, Jr., who returns to San Francisco Opera following his 2017 debut as Count Monterone in Rigoletto.
The concert will feature music by Michael Abels, Terence Blanchard, Brandi Carlile, Ryan Cassata, Umberto Giordano, Charles Gounod, k.d. lang, Jacques Offenbach, Stephen Schwartz, Michael Tilson Thomas, Luther Vandross, Stevie Wonder and more.
Arrive early for a pre-show happy hour with discounted food and beverages. Following the concert, the celebration continues with a dance party in the beautiful opera house lobby with DJ Juanita MORE!
San Francisco Opera is partnering with local organizations for activations throughout the Opera House including displays from the GLBT Historical Society, a San Francisco Pride Flag-inspired exhibit by Hand Bookbinders of California, AIDS Memorial Quilts from the National AIDS Memorial and an interactive Pride Altar of Remembrance by the Marigold Project. A pre-show discussion with guests to be announced will precede the concert. For more information, visit sfopera.com/pride.
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