Program features works by Mendelssohn, Berlioz, Wagner, and Debussy.
The San Francisco Symphony has announced two performances in June featuring conductor Elim Chan and mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke at Davies Symphony Hall.
The program brings together orchestral works inspired by literature, love, and the natural world, including Felix Mendelssohn’s Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hector Berlioz’s Les nuits d’été, Richard Wagner’s Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde, and Claude Debussy’s La mer.
The evening opens with Mendelssohn’s Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, written when the composer was 17 and inspired by William Shakespeare’s play. Cooke joins Chan and the Orchestra for Berlioz’s Les nuits d’été, a song cycle setting six poems by Théophile Gautier. Following intermission, the program continues with Wagner’s Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde, leading into Debussy’s La mer, the composer’s orchestral portrayal of the sea.
Friday, June 5, 2026, at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, June 6, 2026, at 7:30 p.m.
Elim Chan, conductor
Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano
San Francisco Symphony
Felix Mendelssohn
Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Hector Berlioz
Les nuits d’été
Richard Wagner
Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde
Claude Debussy
La mer
Tickets range from $29 to $89 and are available at sfsymphony.org or by calling the San Francisco Symphony Box Office at 415-864-6000. Davies Symphony Hall is located at 201 Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco.
Videos