MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS to Return to San Francisco Opera

Scottish-born composer Thea Musgrave's 1977 opera, Mary, Queen of Scots, returns to San Francisco in a new co-production between San Francisco Opera and English National Opera by director and designer Stewart Laing. Italian conductor Clelia Cafiero makes her Company debut leading the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and a cast headed by soprano Heidi Stober in the title role. Chorus Director John Keene prepares the San Francisco Opera Chorus.

Mary, Queen of Scots, the fifth of composer Thea Musgrave's 11 operas to date, explores the fight for political survival of one of history's most iconic queens amid the determination of three men to usurp her power. Romantic playwright Friedrich Schiller, Bel Canto composer Gaetano Donizetti and numerous 20th-century novelists and filmmakers have all woven stories around Mary's execution at the order of her cousin Elizabeth I. Musgrave's opera, on the other hand, focuses on the young Mary's contentious reign in Scotland and her constant fight to retain her throne as three men—her half-brother, second husband and a potential ally (and ultimately her third husband)—all vie to control her and appropriate her power. Her libretto juxtaposes scenes of public unrest and court intrigue with the gentle normalcy of motherhood as Mary sings a lullaby to her baby, the future king of Scotland and England, James I. Musgrave's incisive score propels the turbulent events of the Queen's reign with dramatic urgency and soaring lyricism.

Musgrave's opera was introduced at the 1977 Edinburgh International Festival, where it enjoyed critical and popular success. The U.S. premiere of Mary, Queen of Scots followed in 1978 at Virginia Opera under the baton of Peter Mark, Musgrave's husband and artistic and general director of the Company from 1975–2010. Musgrave, who was then a faculty member at the University of California Santa Barbara, conducted the opera's West Coast premiere for San Francisco Opera affiliate Spring Opera Theater in April 1979 at the Curran Theatre.

Known for the clarity of her invention, the skill of her orchestrations and the power of her musical communication, Thea Musgrave has consistently explored new means of projecting dramatic situations in her music. Her large-scale and chamber operas of the past 50 years include The Voice of Ariadne (1973); Mary, Queen of Scots (1977); A Christmas Carol (1979); Harriet, The Woman Called Moses (1984); Simón Bolívar (1992) and Pontalba (2003). The immense diversity of her music has been showcased in major retrospectives, including the BBC's Total Immersion weekend in 2014 and the Stockholm International Composer Festival 2018 where fifteen of her orchestral and chamber works were performed in four concerts. She has been the recipient of numerous awards including two Guggenheim Fellowships, the Ivors Classical Music Award 2018 and The Queen's Medal for Music. Approaching her 100th year in 2028, Musgrave's centenary will be celebrated with concerts, performances and events worldwide honoring the composer's remarkable life in music.

San Francisco Opera's first-performed opera by a female composer—Musgrave's Mary, Queen of Scots—returns this season for its mainstage premiere in director and designer Stewart Laing's production. Co-lit by designers D.M. Wood and Mimi Jordan Sherin, the production was first presented by English National Opera in 2025.