Wagner's DAS RHEINGOLD and More Set for San Francisco Opera 2026-27 Season

San Francisco Opera Tad has revealed the repertory and casting for the Company's 104th season, which opens September 12 with Giuseppe Verdi's Simon Boccanegra under Kim's baton. Highlights of the season include a new co-production with English National Opera of Thea Musgrave's Mary, Queen of Scots and Richard Wagner's Das Rheingold, the prologue of his four-opera epic, The Ring of the Nibelung. Works by Jules Massenet, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Giacomo Puccini return to the stage along with a variety of concerts.

Opening weekend begins with the annual Opera Ball benefit, co-presented with San Francisco Opera Guild, at City Hall and the War Memorial Opera House on Saturday, September 12, featuring Verdi's political drama Simon Boccanegra (September 12–27). Eun Sun Kim leads a new-to-San-Francisco-Opera production by Claus Guth, one of opera's foremost directors. The following day, Kim, the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and vocal soloists from the fall season head to Robin Williams Meadow in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park for the free, annual Opera in the Park concert (Sunday, September 13).

Scottish-born composer Thea Musgrave's 1977 English-language opera, Mary, Queen of Scots (September 20–October 4), had its West Coast premiere in 1979 by San Francisco Opera affiliate Spring Opera Theater at the Curran Theatre with the composer conducting. San Francisco Opera's first opera by a female composer returns for its mainstage premiere in director and designer Stewart Laing's staging led by rising Italian conductor Clelia Cafiero and starring soprano Heidi Stober as Mary.

San Francisco Opera's commitment to expanding the operatic repertoire includes the creation of new works and the bringing back of important operas of the last century like Mary, Queen of Scots. Looking ahead to Fall 2027, the Company will present The Galloping Cure by Missy Mazzoli with a libretto by Royce Vavrek that resets Franz Kafka's short story “A Country Doctor” in the present-day opioid crisis as filtered through the imagination of American writer Karen Russell. This new opera by the composer and librettist team behind Breaking the Waves, The Listeners and Proving Up will have its U.S. premiere in San Francisco, continuing the Company's recent commissions and co-commissions, which include The Monkey King (Huang Ruo, David Henry Hwang; 2025), Innocence (Kaija Saariaho, Sofi Oksanen, Aleksi Barrière; 2024), Omar (Rhiannon Giddens, Michael Abels; 2023), The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs (Mason Bates, Mark Campbell; 2023), El último sueño de Frida y Diego (Gabriela Lena Frank, Nilo Cruz; 2023) and Antony and Cleopatra (John Adams; 2022).

The Fall 2026 operas also include Eun Sun Kim conducting Jules Massenet's Manon (October 15–November 1), with soprano Amina Edris and tenor Pene Pati as the lovers in Vincent Boussard's staging (a San Francisco Opera co-production), and Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro (Le Nozze di Figaro) (October 31–November 29) with Shawna Lucey directing the Company's production by the late Michael Cavanagh and Sebastian Weigle conducting in his Company debut. Summer 2027 will feature Kim leading Wagner's Das Rheingold (May 29–June 22) in the acclaimed production by director Francesca Zambello, with baritone Brian Mulligan as Wotan. Shawna Lucey's production of Giacomo Puccini's Tosca (June 4–July 2) returns with an all-star cast headed by soprano Rachel Willis-Sørensen singing the title role for the first time.

On November 6, Kim and the San Francisco Opera Orchestra take the stage for Strauss in Concert, an all-Richard Strauss program featuring soprano soloist Adela Zaharia. In Summer 2027, the Pride Concert (June 25) returns to kick off Pride Weekend in San Francisco. Chorus Director John Keene leads the artists of the San Francisco Opera Chorus in a Chorus Concert at the Dianne and Tad Taube Atrium Theater on November 22. The Company's resident artists, the Adler Fellows, will have their annual showcase with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra on November 20 at Herbst Theatre.

The May–June 2027 performances of Das Rheingold are a preview of what is to come in June–July 2028 when Eun Sun Kim conducts her first complete performances of Wagner's four-part magnum opus, The Ring of the Nibelung. The lead up to the full cycles will continue in Fall 2027 with part two of the Ring cycle, Die Walküre, before three full cycles in June 2028 (preceded by a standalone performance each of Siegfried and Götterdämmerung in late spring 2028). Kim has conducted at least one opera by Wagner each season in San Francisco since Lohengrin in 2023, a production that was chronicled in the Northern California Emmy-nominated documentary Eun Sun Kim: A Journey into Lohengrin. She conducted Tristan und Isolde in 2024 and the new production of Parsifal in 2025, marking her commitment to building the next generation of Wagnerian musicians at San Francisco Opera.

San Francisco Opera's 2026–27 Season will feature many of the world's finest operatic artists. Those who are making Company debuts include: conductors Clelia Cafiero and Sebastian Weigle; soprano Eleonora Buratto; tenors Joshua Guerrero, Riccardo Massi and Christopher Sokolowski; baritones Vitor Bispo and Thomas Mole; basses Patrick Guetti and Peter Kellner; production Claus Guth; director and production designer Stewart Laing; production designer Christian Schmidt; and revival lighting designer A.J. Guban.

2026–27 SEASON

**OPENING OF SAN FRANCISCO OPERA'S 104TH SEASON**

OPERA BALL

Saturday, September 12, 2026 at 5 p.m.

San Francisco Opera's annual opening night benefit, Opera Ball, presented in partnership with San Francisco Opera Guild, is one of the premier Bay Area philanthropic events of the year. Festivities begin with the red carpet, a cocktail reception and formal dinner at City Hall. Guests then promenade to the Opera House for the opening of Verdi's Simon Boccanegra led by Music Director Eun Sun Kim. After the opera, dancing and late-night bites await back at City Hall.

The co-chairs for Opera Ball 2026 are Sydney Leung and Jennifer Walske. Proceeds from the gala, which is made possible, in part, by Opening Weekend Grand Sponsor Diane B. Wilsey, benefit the artistic initiatives of San Francisco Opera and San Francisco Opera Guild's education programs, which reach thousands in K–12 classrooms and after-school programs.

**New-to-San-Francisco-Opera Production**

SIMON BOCCANEGRA by Giuseppe Verdi

September 12–27, 2026

Verdi's Simon Boccanegra, a collaboration with librettist Francesco Maria Piave, had its premiere in 1857 during the composer's middle period. Working with changes to the libretto by Arrigo Boito, Verdi returned to it in 1881 when his expressive powers had reached a new peak. The story follows the embattled Doge of Genoa who is reunited with his long-lost daughter just as political rivals destabilize his government. Music Director Eun Sun Kim conducts the composer's turbulent masterpiece which was last heard at the War Memorial Opera House in 2008 with the late Dmitri Hvorostovsky in the title role. Chorus Director John Keene prepares the artists of the San Francisco Opera Chorus.

German director Claus Guth's acclaimed production from the Hamburg State Opera, presented for the first time in America, underscores through flashbacks and production designer Christian Schmidt's split-stage perspectives how memory and past events shape the present. Katherine M. Carter, who staged the Company's 2025 revival of La Bohème, directs Guth's production.

Simon Boccanegra holds an esteemed place in the Company's history, from the 1941 West Coast premiere through presentations with many of the century's greatest Verdi singers. Mongolian baritone Amartuvshin Enkhbat, who starred in the past two season-opening Verdi operas (Un Ballo in Maschera in 2024, Rigoletto in 2025) makes his role debut as Boccanegra. Soprano Eleonora Buratto, acclaimed for her performances in Italian works at the Metropolitan Opera, makes her Company debut as Boccanegra's daughter, Maria, who was abducted as a child and raised under the name Amelia. American soprano and former San Francisco Opera Adler Fellow Toni Marie Palmertree sings Maria/Amelia at the final performance on September 27. Bass-baritone Christian Van Horn portrays Jacopo Fiesco, who attempts to thwart Boccanegra at the instigation of the conspiratorial Paolo, performed by baritone Aleksey Bogdanov. Tenor Joshua Guerrero makes his house debut as Gabriele Adorno, Amelia's suitor who becomes an instrument in the struggle for power.

San Francisco Chronicle Presents

OPERA IN THE PARK

Sunday, September 13, 2026 at 1:30 p.m.

Opera in the Park in 2025 featuring Amartuvshin Enkhbat and Adela Zaharia (Photos: Kristen Loken/San Francisco Opera)

Opening weekend continues with Opera in the Park at Robin Williams Meadow in Golden Gate Park. The beloved San Francisco tradition, which began in 1971, is a free concert featuring the greatest operatic stars in the world. Eun Sun Kim and the San Francisco Opera Orchestra with vocal soloists from the Fall 2026 Season will present arias, duets, popular songs and instrumental works. Bring your picnic baskets for this popular al fresco gathering attended by audiences of more than 10,000 each year.

**New Co-Production and Mainstage Premiere**

MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS by Thea Musgrave

September 20–October 4, 2026

Mary, Queen of Scots, the fifth of composer Thea Musgrave's 11 operas, explores self-reliance amid harrowing trials in the life of one of history's most iconic royals. Bel Canto composer Gaetano Donizetti famously dramatized the events surrounding Mary's execution for treason in Maria Stuarda. In Mary, Queen of Scots, Musgrave focuses on the young queen, still a teenager and newly returned to Scotland, and her constant fight to retain her throne as three men—Mary's half-brother, her husband, and a potential ally—vie to control her. Musgrave's libretto juxtaposes scenes of double-dealing and public unrest with the gentle normalcy of Mary singing a lullaby to her baby, the future king of Scotland and England. Her incisive score propels the action with raw intensity and soaring lyricism.

Italian conductor Clelia Cafiero makes her Company debut leading the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and cast. Director and designer Stewart Laing sets the 16th-century historical drama against a backdrop of contemporary Scottish life and sectarian violence. The production features the work of lighting designer D.M. Wood.

Reviewing San Francisco Opera's Centennial Season production of Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites, the San Francisco Chronicle said of soprano Heidi Stober: “[her] appearances with the Company have been reliable sources of joy ever since her 2010 debut in Massenet's Werther. But her performance as Blanche added a new and even deeper level of psychological specificity to her expected vocal brilliance.” In Fall 2026, Stober portrays Mary, Queen of Scots, a role she performed at London's Coliseum last year: “The title role lies high, and Stober is all thrilling top notes and terrific moments of defiance or self-assertion” (The Guardian).

Baritone Thomas Mole makes his American debut as Mary's half-brother James Stewart. Current San Francisco Opera Adler Fellow tenor Thomas Kinch is the Earl of Bothwell, and tenor Christopher Sokolowski makes his debut as Mary's husband, Lord Darnley.

MANON by Jules Massenet

October 15–November 1, 2026

The story of Manon explores the emotions of young love and the allure of material wealth through the tumultuous experiences of its eponymous heroine. The score's shimmering textures and sensuous lyricism have ensured the popularity of this gem of the French repertoire since its premiere in Belle Époque Paris nearly 150 years ago. Eun Sun Kim leads this irresistible portrait of passion and self-determination. Director and costume designer Vincent Boussard returns to stage his production, a collaboration with set designer Vincent Lemaire. Boussard said of his staging, last presented here in 2017: “I believe the story of a young lady who wants to listen to a call for freedom and pleasure belongs to our time.”

Soprano Amina Edris has triumphed here as Juliette in Gounod's Roméo et Juliette and Cleopatra in the world premiere of John Adams' Antony and Cleopatra. She brings her celebrated portrayal of Manon from the stages of Paris, Barcelona and Bordeaux to San Francisco for the first time. Samoan tenor Pene Pati, one of opera's leading talents, is the Chevalier Des Grieux. Baritone Vitor Bispo makes his American and house debut as Lescaut, Manon's protective cousin who is eager to uphold the family name, and James Creswell reprises the role of Comte des Grieux.

THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

October 31–November 29, 2026