Sapphira Cristál Joins San Francisco Opera's Pride Concert

San Francisco Opera announced a change for the Pride Concert, which closes the Company's 2025 Summer Season mainstage presentations on Friday, June 27. Due to a scheduling conflict stemming from the extension of a filming project, Monét X Change is unable to be the emcee for San Francisco Opera's inaugural Pride Concert. The Company looks forward to working with her in the future.

This season's Pride Concert will be hosted by Sapphira Cristál, a classically trained opera singer, composer and drag queen known for her theatrical lip-sync style and six-octave vocal range. She was the runner-up and named “Miss Congeniality” on season 16 of RuPaul's Drag Race, where she exhibited her versatility as a performer, including a special performance of “O mio babbino caro” from Puccini's Gianni Schicchi. In 2019, Cristál shared the stage with mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. She returned to the festival in 2023 as a headliner and Philadelphia magazine named her 2023's “Best Drag Queen Who Actually Sings.” She was featured on Madonna's Celebration Tour in 2024 and debuted Soundcake, her original operatic production with Monét X Change and Thorgy Thor at Lincoln Center in New York City. She has since toured her one-woman show The Cristál Ball Tour, brought Sapphira Cristál Presents: One Slue Over the Cuckoo's Nest to City Winery and appeared at New York's famed 54 Below. She is currently starring in RuPaul's Drag Race Live in Las Vegas.

Coinciding with San Francisco's annual Pride Weekend, San Francisco Opera celebrates the LGBTQIA+ community with the June 27 Pride Concert, which features the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, conducted by Caroline H. Hume Music Director Eun Sun Kim and Robert Mollicone, with soloists mezzo-sopranos Jamie Barton and Nikola Printz and baritone Brian Mulligan. Along with the concert program, hosted by Sapphira Cristál, the evening will include dazzling animations by Tal Rosner and historic images from past Pride celebrations and milestones projected onto the walls of the auditorium, and a post-show dance party.

The 80-minute musical program will include selections from opera composers Leonard Bernstein, Jake Heggie, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Camille Saint-Saëns; songs from screen and stage, such as A Star is Born (1954), Mame and La Cage aux Folles; and folk, pop, jazz and disco anthems by Freddie Mercury, Indigo Girls and Melissa Etheridge, among others. The concert is followed by a dance party in the lobby with DJ Juanita MORE!

For this special celebration, San Francisco Opera is partnering with local organizations, including San Francisco Pride, The Tenderloin Museum, National AIDS Memorial, Compton's Cafeteria Riot, Marigold Project, GLBT Historical Society and Twin Peaks Tavern.

Pride Concert Event Highlights:

• Pre-show Happy Hour with discounted food and drinks
• Interactive Altar of Remembrance by the Marigold Project
• LGBTQIA+ Historical Exhibit by the GLBT Historical Society
• Sections of the AIDS Memorial Quilt display by the National AIDS Memorial
• Pre-show discussion with Suzanne Ford, executive director of SF Pride
• Concert hosted by Sapphira Cristál with soloists Jamie Barton, Brian Mulligan and Nikola Printz, conducted by Eun Sun Kim and Robert Mollicone
• Post-show dance party with DJ Juanita MORE!