San Francisco Opera to Present All-Richard Strauss Concert

San Francisco Opera will present Strauss in Concert conducted by Caroline H. Hume Music Director Eun Sun Kim on Friday, November 6.

Following sold-out concerts of symphonies by Ludwig van Beethoven in 2024 and 2025, Maestro Kim and the San Francisco Opera Orchestra return to the War Memorial Opera House stage with an evening dedicated to the music of Richard Strauss. This one-night-only event includes the U.S. premiere of a new suite of music from Strauss’ opera Der Rosenkavalier, one of the composer’s early tone poems and a song cycle setting works by the nineteenth-century Romantic poet Clemens Brentano.

The program opens with Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks, the 1895 tone poem that musically illustrates the irreverent adventures and demise of the trickster Till, a German folk hero. Strauss’ Sechs Lieder (or Brentano Lieder) a cycle of six songs composed in 1919 and dedicated to one of the composer’s favorite interpreters, soprano Elisabeth Schumann, will be performed by soprano Adela Zaharia.

After intermission, Maestro Kim and the San Francisco Opera Orchestra will present the U.S. premiere of Der Rosenkavalier Suite, a new arrangement by Swiss conductor Philippe Jordan and arranger Tomáš Ille. The well-known Rosenkavalier Suite from the past century, thought to have been arranged by conductor Artur Rodzinski in 1944, emphasizes the waltz music in Strauss’ 1911 opera but bears little relation to its dramatic plot. At 35 minutes in duration, Jordan and Ille’s new suite, commissioned by Radio France and premiered in 2021, is longer than the older Rosenkavalier Suite and utilizes the colors of orchestra to relate the story of Strauss’ beloved romantic comedy.

Throughout her tenure as San Francisco Opera’s Music Director, Eun Sun Kim has led a wide repertoire of opera and concert works, including the world premiere of John Adams’ Antony and Cleopatra, Richard Wagner’s Parsifal, Giuseppe Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra, Ludwig van Beethoven’s Fidelio and his Ninth and Fifth Symphonies. In 2026, Maestro Kim has conducted the music of Richard Strauss, including Ariadne auf Naxos in Berlin, along with Elektra with San Francisco Opera. The San Francisco Chronicle said of Elektra, “Kim leads with propulsion and breathtaking control over the immense orchestra—Strauss never met an instrument he couldn’t stuff into a score—and miraculously retains clarity even in the loudest passages.” During San Francisco Opera’s current season, Maestro Kim also conducts Massenet’s French repertoire gem Manon (October 15–November 1) and Wagner’s Das Rheingold (May 29–June 22, 2027), the latter a prelude to complete cycles of Wagner’s Ring in Summer 2028.

Romanian soprano Adela Zaharia made her San Francisco Opera debut in 2022 as Donna Anna in the Company’s new production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni. She returned for the Company’s 100th Anniversary Concert in 2023 and opened the 2025–26 Season as Gilda in Verdi’s Rigoletto for which the San Francisco Chronicle praised her “fluting tone and steely precision to the lyrical and technical demands of Gilda.” Zaharia’s recent credits include Ophelia in Thomas’ Hamlet in Paris, Konstanze in Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail for Berlin, Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata in Bologna and the title role in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor at the Vienna State Opera.

TICKETS AND INFORMATION

Tickets for Strauss in Concert are priced from $30 to $447. A $2 per-ticket facility fee is included in Balcony 1, 2 and 3 zone prices; all other zones include a $3 per-ticket facility fee. Contact the San Francisco Opera Box Office at 301 Van Ness Avenue, call (415) 864-3330 or visit sfopera.com.

The War Memorial Opera House is located at 301 Van Ness Avenue. Patrons are encouraged to use public transportation to attend San Francisco Opera performances. The War Memorial Opera House is within walking distance of the Civic Center BART/Muni Station and near the 5, 6, 49 and F Market Street bus lines. For public transportation information, visit bart.gov and sfmta.com.

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