Ian Roberts News

The Dallas Opera announces a free public simulcast at beautiful Klyde Warren Park featuring the classic romance LA TRAVIATA, by Giuseppe Verdi. The special presentation takes place in Downtown Dallas Today, October 27, 2017 (program begins at 6:30 p.m., curtain at 7:30 p.m.).

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.

Valley Performing Arts Center (The Soraya) brings one of the country's most respected improv troupes, Upright Citizens Brigade, to their stage today, October 14 at 8:00pm. Today Night Live alumnus Sasheer Zamata and UCB Founding Member, Matt Besser will lead the Upright Citizens Brigade All-Stars in a night of unpredictable antics.

Valley Performing Arts Center (The Soraya) brings one of the country's most respected improv troupes, Upright Citizens Brigade, to their stage on Saturday, October 14 at 8:00pm. Saturday Night Live alumnus Sasheer Zamata and UCB Founding Member, Matt Besser will lead the Upright Citizens Brigade All-Stars in a night of unpredictable antics.

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.

Improv performers Jason Specland and Adrian Sexton will be performing in 'GEORGE/MARTHA,' an improvised 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' at the PIT Underground in the Peoples Improv Theater, at 7 PM today, September 26th, 2017.

Following their critically-acclaimed 2017 summer tour of The Wind in the Willows, Immersion Theatre Company are thrilled to announce that they will be bringing their trademark energy to their wildest show yet, a brand new musical adaptation of the family classic, The Jungle Book!

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 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.

Improv performers Jason Specland and Adrian Sexton will be performing in 'GEORGE/MARTHA,' an improvised 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' at the PIT Underground in the Peoples Improv Theater, at 7 PM on Tuesday, September 26th, 2017.

The Dallas Opera announces a free public simulcast at beautiful Klyde Warren Park featuring the classic romance LA TRAVIATA, by Giuseppe Verdi. The special presentation takes place in Downtown Dallas Friday, October 27, 2017 (program begins at 6:30 p.m., curtain at 7:30 p.m.).

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.

San Francisco Opera today announced the addition of two concerts to its 2017 Fall Season. On Thursday, November 30, the San Francisco Opera Chorus will be featured in an all-choral program at the Taube Atrium Theater in the Diane B. Wilsey Center for Opera. The following evening on December 1, multi-platinum New Zealand vocal trio Sol3 Mio (pronounced So-le Mio) will make their continental United States concert debut at the War Memorial Opera House accompanied by the San Francisco Opera Orchestra conducted by Robert Mollicone. In a related announcement, the venue for the annual The Future is Now concert featuring the 2017 Adler Fellows on Friday, December 8, will be the War Memorial Opera House.

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.

School is back in session this fall! Don't be late for class on Tuesday, November 7th at 10pm ET/PT, when TV Land's critical darling TEACHERS returns for the second half of season two.

San Francisco Playhouse (Bill English, Artistic Director; Susi Damilano, Producing Director) opens its fifteenth season with the Bay Area premiere of Barbecue by Robert O'Hara. In an unusual artistic feat, Margo Hall will direct and also act in the play.

San Francisco Playhouse (Bill English, Artistic Director; Susi Damilano, Producing Director) concludes its 2016-2017 Sandbox Series for new works with the World Premiere of Zenith, written by Kirsten Greenidge. Lauren English directs. Performances will be held at A.C.T.'s Costume Shop.

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.

At the conclusion of last night's performance of Verdi's Rigoletto, San Francisco Opera General Director Matthew Shilvock presented the Company's Head of Wardrobe, Geoffry M. Craig, with the San Francisco Opera Medal, the Company's highest honor. Craig joined the Wardrobe Department staff in 1981 as a dresser, became Head of Men's Wardrobe in 1986 and assumed his current position of Deparment Head in 1999. After 36 years of service, Craig will retire from San Francisco Opera at the end of the 2017 Summer Season.

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.