Gary Marder News

San Francisco Opera presents six performances of Jules Massenet's Manon at the War Memorial Opera HouseNovember 4 22.

San Francisco Opera presents six performances of Jules Massenet's Manon at the War Memorial Opera House November 4 22. One of the composer's most enduring and sensuous works, Manon returns to the Company's repertory after a 19-year hiatus in a new production by French director Vincent Boussard, which is a co-production with Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre and the Israeli Opera.

The 2017 Fall Season of San Francisco Opera continues in November and December with a new production of Jules Massenet's Manon (November 4 22), Giacomo Puccini's Turandot (November 18 December 9) and the highly anticipated world premiere of John Adams' Girls of the Golden West (November 21 December 10). Special concert presentations include the San Francisco Opera Chorus (November 30), the popular award-winning New Zealand vocal trio Sol3 Mio performing with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra (December 1) and The Future Is Now: Adler Fellows Concert (December 8). The Company's 95th season culminates in June 2018 with Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen.

San Francisco Opera inaugurates its 95th season on Friday, September 8, with Puccini's Turandot, staged in the iconic production by English artist David Hockney and conducted by Company Music Director Nicola Luisotti, and two opening night galas. Saturday, September 9 features the opening of a new production of Richard Strauss' Elektra. The festivities continue on Sunday, September 10, with San Francisco Chronicle Presents Opera in the Park, an annual Bay Area tradition celebrating the opening of the opera season with a free concert in Golden Gate Park.

San Francisco Opera announced today a casting update for its season-opening production of Giacomo Puccini's Turandot, running from September 8 through 30 at the War Memorial Opera House. American soprano Toni Marie Palmertree will sing Liu, replacing Maria Agresta who has withdrawn due to illness. Originally scheduled to portray Puccini's tragic heroine on September 24 and 30, Palmertree will now perform in all six September performances.

San Francisco Opera today announced a cast change for Jules Massenet's Manon, opening November 4 and running for six performances through November 22, 2017.

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.

Washington National Opera's 2016–2017 season concludes with one of the most beloved operas in the repertory, Puccini's Madame Butterfly, May 6– 21, 2017 in the Kennedy Center Opera House. Featuring some of the most enduring and memorable music in all of opera, this production also features dazzling sets and costumes by Japanese American production designer Jun Kaneko, whose dramatic designs for WNO's 2014 production of The Magic Flute amazed audiences. This new- to-Washington production from Opera Omaha and San Francisco Opera is directed by Leslie Swackhamer and conducted by WNO Music Director Philippe Auguin. A special Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Performance of Madame Butterfly is presented in the Opera House on Friday, May 19, 2017, and features current singers of WNO's Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program.

San Francisco Opera presents a trio of operatic favorites- Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Don Giovanni and Giacomo Puccini's La Boheme-at the War Memorial Opera House from May 31 through July 2.

San Francisco Opera General Director Matthew Shilvock and Music Director Nicola Luisotti today announced plans for the 2017-18 repertory season. The Company's 95th season will open Friday, September 8 with a gala performance of Giacomo Puccini'sTurandot led by Maestro Luisotti and an international cast starring Martina Serafin, Maria Agresta and Brian Jagde.

San Francisco Opera's 2016–17 Season continues with ten performances of Giacomo Puccini's heartbreaking drama Madama Butterfly, November 6 through December 4 at the War Memorial Opera House. The cast will feature the much-anticipated American debut of young Italian tenor Vincenzo Costanzo as Lt. B.F. Pinkerton and return of Armenian soprano Lianna Haroutounian as the tragic heroine, Cio-Cio-San. Jun Kaneko's colorful and compelling production, last seen in San Francisco during the 2013–14 Season, will be directed by Leslie Swackhamer and Maestro Yves Abel conducts the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and Chorus.

San Francisco Opera's 2016-17 Season continues with ten performances of Giacomo Puccini's heartbreaking drama Madama Butterfly, November 6 through December 4 at the War Memorial Opera House. The cast will feature the much-anticipated American debut of young Italian tenor Vincenzo Costanzo as Lt. B.F. Pinkerton and return of Armenian soprano Lianna Haroutounian as the tragic heroine, Cio-Cio-San. Jun Kaneko's colorful and compelling production, last seen in San Francisco during the 2013-14 Season, will be directed by Leslie Swackhamer and Maestro Yves Abel conducts the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and Chorus.

San Francisco Opera presents the world premiere of Chinese-American composer Bright Sheng's Dream of the Red Chamber, with a libretto by the composer and David Henry Hwang, in six performances from tonight, September 10, through September 29, 2016.

San Francisco Opera presents the world premiere of Chinese-American composer Bright Sheng's Dream of the Red Chamber, with a libretto by the composer and David Henry Hwang, in six performances from September 10-29, 2016.

For a director known as opera's bad boy, Calixto Bieito turned to something awfully familiar in CARMEN for his US debut. Then again, he didn't actually show up for it, tied up with a new production of Aribert Reimann's LEAR in Paris and dispatching one of his top collabortors, Joan Anton Rechi, to pull it together.

San Francisco Opera General Director David Gockley and Music Director Nicola Luisotti today announced the Company's 2016–17 Season repertory and roster of international guest artists, conductors and creative teams scheduled to appear at the War Memorial Opera House, as well as initial programming for SF Opera Lab 2017 presentations at the Diane B. Wilsey Center for Opera's Taube Atrium Theater. The Company's 94th Season will also mark Matthew Shilvock's inaugural year as San Francisco Opera's new general director, succeeding his mentor and internationally respected impresario, David Gockley, who will step down on July 31, 2016.

San Francisco Opera today announced cast changes for the Company's new production of Gaetano Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, presented October 8–28, 2015, and for Mozart's The Magic Flute, presented October 20–November 20, at the War Memorial Opera House.

On Sunday, June 14, San Francisco Opera begins a revival of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's sparkling comedy The Marriage of Figaro (Le Nozze di Figaro) as part of the Company's 2015 Summer Season.

On Sunday, June 14, San Francisco Opera begins a revival of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's sparkling comedy The Marriage of Figaro (Le Nozze di Figaro) as part of the Company's 2015 Summer Season. The production, featuring a stellar cast of dynamic, young singers, is conducted by Principal Guest Conductor Patrick Summers and continues through Sunday, July 5 at the War Memorial Opera House. In conjunction with these performances, San Francisco Opera returns to AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants, for a free live simulcast of The Marriage of Figaro on Friday, July 3. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast onstage below!