OPERA IS ON To Feature Archival San Francisco Opera Performances

San Francisco Opera announced today that it will stream performances from its archives beginning Saturday, May 9, with Arrigo Boito's Mefistofele. Each streamed opera will be presented on Saturdays at 10 am Pacific time at sfopera.com and remain available until midnight the following day.

Streaming of past performances is the newest addition to Opera is ON, the Company's online initiative to connect with the community and provide comfort, beauty and joy during the COVID-19 crisis. Launched on April 1, Opera is ON offers a series of "Odes to Joy" by San Francisco Opera artists; Spotify playlists curated by Company leadership and staff; blog articles from contributors throughout the Company; and fun, interactive content. Opera is ON content will continue to be added on an ongoing basis.

For more information, visit sfopera.com/operaison, and follow San Francisco Opera on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Spotify.

San Francisco Opera's acclaimed production of Mefistofele, Boito's large-scaled Italian opera based on Goethe's Faust, will be streamed on Saturday, May 9. Presented in director Robert Carsen's "imaginative and stunning to behold" (Mercury News) staging from 2013, the work's massive forces-including an opera chorus of 90 singers and a children's chorus of 30-are led from the podium by former San Francisco Opera Music Director Nicola Luisotti. The international cast is headed by Russian bass-baritone Ildar Abdrazakov in his staged role debut as the devil Mephistopheles, Mexican tenor Ramón Vargas as Faust and American soprano Patricia Racette in the dual roles of Margherita and Elena.

Upcoming streaming titles will include Vincenzo Belllini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi (The Capulets and the Montagues) with Joyce DiDonato and Nicole Cabell, the 2012 Company premiere of Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer's Moby-Dick and Gaetano Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia from 2011 starring Renée Fleming and Michael Fabiano.

Since the founding of its media program in 2006, San Francisco Opera has captured many of its performances in high definition using the Koret/Taube Media Suite. Current and 2020-21 San Francisco Opera subscribers and members (donors of $75 and up) will retain access to the streamed titles after their window of public access. For more information about becoming a member and supporting San Francisco Opera, visit sfopera.com/support.