San Francisco Opera

Production and artistic accomplishments San Francisco Opera's 99th season began august 21, 2021, with a performance of puccini's tosca marking the inauguration of eun sun kim's first season as caroline h. hume music director and the company's first performances of live Opera within the war memorial Opera house since the pandemic shutdown in march 2020. The 2021-22 season consisted of three operas and a homecoming concert in fall 2021 and two operas and a concert in summer 2022. All performances included health and safety protocols developed through work with a group of university of California San Francisco (ucsf) doctors for the safety of artists, staff, and audiences. The season had a temporary reduction in the overall number of operas and performances from pre-pandemic levels while (see cont in sch o) introducing a new livestream option for five operas and one concert to enable audiences to experience San Francisco Opera from anywhere in the world. The season-opening performances of tosca featured ailyn perez, michael fabiano, and alfred walker in the company's production by director shawna lucey with music director eun sun kim conducting. The september 10 homecoming concert featured eun sun kim conducting the San Francisco Opera orchestra with soloists rachel willis-sorensen and jamie barton. The homecoming concert was relayed live to the videoboard at oracle park, home of major league baseball's San Francisco giants, where an audience of 7,000 viewed the event for free from picnic blankets on the field and seats in the stadium.on october 14, the company unveiled its new production of beethoven's only Opera, fidelio. The cast featured elza van den heever, russell thomas, greer grimsley, james creswell, soloman howard, anne-marie macintosh, christopher oglesby with eun sun kim conducting. The production was by director matthew ozawa and exhibited the work of set and projection designer alexander v. nichols, costume designer jessica jahn, and lighting designers jax messenger and justin partier. The final mainstage production of the fall season was mozart's cosi fan tutte, the second installment of the company's mozart-da ponte trilogy. This multi-season trilogy project presented mozart and librettist lorenzo da ponte's three operas as a unified narrative taking place in three epochs of american history. Each of the three installments were staged by michael cavanagh with a creative team including erhard rom, constance hoffman, and jane cox. The cast featured nicole cabell, irene roberts, ben bliss, john brancy, and ferruccio furlanetto, with henrik nanasi conducting. The 2022 summer season included two mainstage operas and an all-verdi concert. Mozart's don giovanni completed the mozart-da ponte trilogy that was initiated in 2019 with the marriage of figaro and continued in november 2021 with cosi fan tutte. The new production of don giovanni by michael cavanagh, erhard rom, constance hoffman, and jane cox, featured an international cast of etienne dupuis, luca pisaroni, adela zaharia, nicole car, christina gansch, amitai pati, soloman howard, and cody quattelbaum conducted by bertrand de billy. The second summer production was bright sheng and david henry hwang's dream of the red chamber, a 2016 San Francisco Opera co-commission that was returning to San Francisco for the first time after a successful tour abroad in china. Konu kim and meigui zhang headlined a cast that also included karen chia-ling ho, yulan piao, hyona kim, hongni wu, sun-ly pierce, sabina kim, guang yang, and conducted by darrell ang. Renowned director stan lai returned to direct the original production that also featured the work of production designer tim yip. The concert, eun sun kim conducts verdi, included a program of scenes from three operas by giuseppe verdi: luisa miller, il trovatore, and don carlo. Eun sun kim conducted the San Francisco Opera orchestra and chorus, with soloists nicole car, etienne dupuis, soloman howard, and mikayla sager. Livestreams of San Francisco Opera's 2021-22 presentations of fidelio, cosi fan tutte, don giovanni, dream of the red chamber and eun sun kim conducts verdi reached viewers in 25 different countries, including the usa where streaming audiences tuned in from 46 states. Along with its mainstage Opera and concert presentations, the company showcased the San Francisco Opera chorus and its resident artists, the adler fellows, in concerts in different venues. The 35-year tenure of chorus director ian robertson was celebrated in a chorus concert at the taube atrium theater. The adler fellows were featured in a year-end concert, the future is now, at herbst theater under the baton of eun sun kim with the San fracisco Opera orchestra. The company's digital activity included the Opera and concert livestreams, and the continuation of the in song video portrait series launched in spring 2021. The in song series, which was nominated for two webby awards and won the webby's "people's voice award" in 2022, continued with a portrait of arturo chacon-cruz directing young musicians at a mariachi academy in miami and reflecting on the importance of culture, love and determination in music and life. The next episode, in song: amina edris, was filmed on location in the soprano's native cairo where edris recounts a childhood filled with arabic music inspired by her oud-playing uncle and the music of oum kalthoum and maria callas. In june, in song: meigui zhang was released featuring the chinese soprano and star of dream of the red chamber in a 19-minute film about her journey from chengdu to new york and San Francisco. Also during the company's 99th season, the company announced the appointment of john keene to succeed ian robertson as chorus director, revealed the schedule and casting for its centennial season of 2022-23 and, in june 2022, launched a new initiative called "instigators" to pioneer new ideas for the future of Opera.

Electronic media - the objective of this initiative is to extend the company's audience through television and radio broadcasts, home video products, local simulcasts, cinema presentations, web videos, and in-house hd coverage. The company's pioneering lobbyvision provides audiences a view of the stage from various locations front of house with screens showing real-time hd video and subtitles.

Opera center (training and professional development) the Opera supports an internationally recognized training and professional development program, the adler fellowship program. The adler fellowship program is a performance-oriented residency of two years offering advanced young artists intensive individual training, coaching, professional seminars, and a wide range of performance opportunities. Adler fellows gain valuable professional experience by performing roles of increasing importance in the Opera's main-stage season. In addition to performances on the main stage, selected adler fellows are featured in the schwabacher recital series. The adler season culminates in an adler fellows concert. Alumni from the adler program include: sopranos leah crocetto, nancy gustafson, patricia racette, (see cont in sch o) nadine sierra, ruth ann swenson, elza van den heever, and deborah voigt; mezzo-sopranos zheng cao and dolora zajick; tenors brian jagde, sean panikkar, and noah stewart; countertenor brian asawa; baritones mark delavan and lucas meachem; and bass-baritones monte pederson and john relyea. The San Francisco Opera also supports the merola Opera program for aspiring professionals, offering up-and-coming singers, coach-accompanists and stage directors the opportunity of intense study and performance during an eleven-week summer program. The Opera's commitment to providing music education and enrichment opportunities to students, teachers, young audiences, and adults continued in a myriad of school and family programs and online resources. The San Francisco Opera and Opera guild bring Opera and music education to students and individuals throughout northern California.