Amina Edris News

San Francisco Opera inaugurates its 97th season on Friday, September 6 with Charles Gounod's romantic Romeo and Juliet (Roméo et Juliette) and two season-opening benefit eventsa?"Opera Ball 2019: The Capulets' Masked Ball and BRAVO! CLUB's Opening Night Gala. The Company's opening weekend also includes Benjamin Britten's Billy Budd in director Michael Grandage's acclaimed production opening on September 7; and on September 8 San Francisco Chronicle Presents Opera in the Park, the annual free concert tradition celebrating the opening of the opera season.

San Francisco Opera General Director Matthew Shilvock today announced repertory and casting for the Company's 97th Season, opening Friday, September 6, 2019, with a gala performance of Charles Gounod's Romeo and Juliet (Rom o et Juliette) starring tenor Bryan Hymel and soprano Nadine Sierra in Op ra de Monte-Carlo Director Jean-Louis Grinda's production. In keeping with the Company's time-honored tradition, the new season will be inaugurated with San Francisco Opera Guild's elegant, signature benefit and celebration, Opera Ball 2019.

Washington Concert Opera (WCO) is excited to announce its co-presentation of two very special performances of Frank Martin's Le vin herbe at The Barns at Wolf Trap on February 9th and 10th, 2019.

If you have ever attended an opera and thought 'all of these sets and costumes are so incredibly distracting' then Washington Concert Opera would be right up your alley. Stripping away the grandiose of an opera production, WCO presents their works in their most raw form: with just an orchestra, a chorus, and principles who sing their hearts out. This minimalist style isn't likely to convert opera skeptics, but it is a great way to deepen one's appreciation for the art form. Their most recent presentation of Charles Gounod's first opera, Sapho, benefits from some strong lead performances. It's just a shame that the libretto isn't better.

Washington Concert Opera (WCO) is excited to announce its 2018-2019 lineup, a season that celebrates strong women and the return of beloved opera stars. WCO kicks off the year with their second annual Opera Outside at Washington D.C.'s Meridian Hill/Malcolm X Park on Oct 27th, followed by performances at Lisner Auditorium of Charles Gounod's Sapho on November 18th, 2018 and Gioachino Rossini's Zelmira on April 5th, 2019. Also, for the first time ever, WCO will co-present two very special performances of Frank Martin's Le vin herbe at The Barns at Wolf Trap on February 9th and 10th, 2019.

Arts advocate and San Francisco Opera board member Annette Campbell-White was honored at the sixth annual International Opera Awards (IOA) in London for her lifelong commitment to opera and support of young artists and the performing arts. At the black-tie ceremony held at the London Coliseum on April 9, Campbell-White was presented with the 2018 International Opera Award for Philanthropy. The event, sponsored by British accounting firm Mazars in association with BBC Radio 3 and Opera magazine, also included awards for Female Singer, Male Singer, Readers' Choice, Lifetime Achievement, Recording, among other categories.

San Francisco Opera will present two concerts on the War Memorial Opera House stage during the last two weeks of its 2017 Fall Season. On Friday, December 1, multi-platinum New Zealand trio Sol3 Mio performs with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra conducted byRobert Mollicone in a holiday concert, Christmas with Sol3 Mio. One week later, on December 8, San Francisco Opera Center's 2017 Adler Fellows perform their final concert of the year, The Future Is Now, with American conductor James Gaffigan leading the San Francisco Opera Orchestra.

San Francisco Opera Center Director Sheri Greenawald today announced the eleven recipients of the 2018 Adler Fellowship. Eight singers, two pianist/apprentice coaches and one director will take part in the program. The multi-year performance-oriented residency offers advanced young artists intensive individual training, coaching and professional seminars, as well as a wide range of performance opportunities. Adler Fellows are selected from the artists who have participated in the Merola Opera Program. The prestigious fellowship has nurtured the development of more than 175 young artists since its inception.

San Francisco Opera presents Verdi's La Traviata in ten performances at the War Memorial Opera House, September 23 through October 17. Company Music DirectorNicola Luisotti leads an international cast featuring three artists making their Company debuts in leading roles: Romanian soprano Aurelia Florian as Violetta Val ry, Brazilian tenor Atalla Ayan as Alfredo Germont and Polish baritone Artur Rucinski as Giorgio Germont.

SF Opera Lab pops up at San Francisco's premiere electronic dance music club MEZZANINE, on October 12, 2017 with Operatronica, an operatic dance party combining opera and electronica and featuring performances by San Francisco Opera Adler Fellows alongside the Loves Company DJ crew

San Francisco Opera inaugurated its 95th season with a weekend of celebrations and performances beginning on Friday, September 8 with two galas Opera Ball 2017 at The Imperial Palace and the BRAVO! CLUB Opening Night Gala and a performance of Giacomo Puccini's Turandot in artist David Hockney's colorful production. At the opera's conclusion, San Francisco Opera Music Director Nicola Luisotti, who conducted the performance, was awarded the San Francisco Opera Medal.

San Francisco Opera's production of Richard Strauss'Elektra opens in a new staging by acclaimed English director Keith Warner at the War Memorial Opera House on Saturday, September 9. Absent from the Company's repertory for two decades, Strauss' 1909 opera, with a libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal and based on the Greek tragedy by Sophocles, returns with a powerful cast headlined by soprano Christine Goerke in the title role. Hungarian conductor Henrik Nanasi makes his Company debut leading the San Francisco Opera Orchestra

San Francisco Opera's partnership with the Bay Area's Classical KDFC continues this fall with monthly opera broadcasts beginning September 3with Giuseppe Verdi's Otello in a historic 1978 performance featuring Placido Domingo in the title role and Katia Ricciarelli as Desdemona. From October through December, the broadcasts will feature presentations from San Francisco Opera's 2017 Summer Season: Mozart's Don Giovanni,Verdi's Rigoletto and Puccini's La Boheme. Each broadcast was recorded live at the War Memorial Opera House and features the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and San Francisco Opera Chorus.

San Francisco Opera celebrates the opening of its 95th Season with Opera in the Park, presented by the San Francisco Chronicle, at Sharon Meadow in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park on Sunday, September 10 at 1:30 p.m. This free concert features acclaimed artists from the Company's 2017 Fall Season performing arias and other operatic favorites with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra conducted by Music Director Nicola Luisotti. In the event's time-honored finale, the audience joins with the singers for a rousing rendition of the brindisi (drinking song) from Giuseppe Verdi's La Traviata. San Francisco Opera General Director Matthew Shilvock serves as master of ceremonies for the afternoon.

San Francisco Opera presents Verdi's La Traviata in ten performances at the War Memorial Opera House, September 23 through October 17. Company Music DirectorNicola Luisotti leads an international cast featuring three artists making their Company debuts in leading roles: Romanian soprano Aurelia Florian as Violetta Valery, Brazilian tenor Atalla Ayan as Alfredo Germontand Polish baritone Artur Ruci?ski as Giorgio Germont. The classic 1987 San Francisco Opera production, which evokes the opulence of mid-19th century Paris in lavish, detailed settings and costumes, will be revived by original director John Copley along with stage director Shawna Lucey. Artistic Director of Theatre Flamenco of San Francisco Carola Zertuche contributes new choreography in her Company debut. Ian Robertson directs the San Francisco Opera Chorus.

On August 5, 2017, high in the Sierra Mountains of Nevada, Classical Tahoe presented four of San Francisco Opera's Adler Fellows in a program of music by Gaetano Donizetti, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Giuseppe Verdi.The Adler Fellowship Program is a multi-year performance-oriented residency for promising young artists that offers intensive individual coaching, professional seminars and a wide range of performance opportunities.

Single (non-subscription) tickets for San Francisco Opera's 2017 Fall Season at the War Memorial Opera House go on sale Monday, June 26, 2017, at 10 a.m. Tickets may be purchased online at sfopera.com; in-person at the San Francisco Opera Box Office, located at 301 Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco and open Mondays from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and Tuesday-Saturday from 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; and by phone at (415) 864-3330 during Box Office hours. Full and Half Series subscription packages are also available. Tickets for the three cycles of Wagner's Ring during the summer of 2018 are available as complete, four-opera cycles only.

San Francisco Opera's 2017 Summer Season opens Wednesday, May 31, with Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto at the War Memorial Opera House. Check out photos from the show below!

San Francisco Opera's 2017 Summer Season opens Wednesday, May 31, with Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto at the War Memorial Opera House.

The Merola Opera Program launches its 60th Anniversary season on Sunday, June 11 with a Benefit Gala at City Hall and a concert immediately following at Herbst Theatre in San Francisco, featuring some of the acclaimed Merola program's most illustrious participants. The 60th Anniversary concert will feature performances by Merola alumni from the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and current and recent participants, including: soprano Deborah Voigt (1985); mezzo-soprano Dolora Zajick (1983); Mark Morash, pianist and Merola Opera Program Music Director (1987); and soprano Tracy Dahl (1985); soprano Kristin Clayton (1993), mezzo-soprano Catherine Cook (1990), Bojan Knezevic, bass-baritone (1992, 1993, 1994), and John Churchwell, pianist (1996); baritone Quinn Kelsey (2002); 2013 Merola graduates mezzo-soprano Zanda Šv?de and tenors Pene Pati and Issachah Savage; soprano Julie Adams, and bass Anthony Reed,  all from 2014; Amina Edris and Toni Marie Palmertree, sopranos; and Brad Walker, bass-baritone, both from 2015; and 2016 artists Sarah Cambidge, soprano; Amitai Pati and Kyle van Schoonhoven, tenors; Andrew G. Manea, baritone; John Elam and Jennifer Szeto, pianists; and director Aria Umezawa.