San Francisco Opera Association

Production and artistic accomplishments San Francisco Opera's 2022-23 season began on september 9, 2022 with Opera ball: the centennial celebration, a gala to celebrate the company's 100th season which featured nadine sierra, michael fabiano, pene pati, and lucas meachem led by company music director eun sun kim conducting the San Francisco Opera orchestra.the 2022-23 season consisted of eight operas on the mainstage, multiple concerts on a variety of stages, a mobile production that visited four venues around the bay area, and a robust schedule of ancillary events connected to the celebration of San Francisco Opera's centenary and launch of its second century. Providing additional access to the company's offerings, each Opera and the two centennial (see schedule o) concerts were live-streamed around the world.the first Opera of the season, opening on september 10, was the world premiere of john adams' antony and cleopatra, a work that was commissioned by San Francisco Opera to inaugurate its 100th season. The cast featured gerald finley, amina edris, paul appleby, alfred walker, and elizabeth deshong in a production directed by elkhanah pulitzer with music director eun sun kim conducting. On september 25, the famous robert carsen production of tchaikovsky's eugene onegin was presented for the first time in San Francisco starring evgenia muraveva, gordon bintner, evan leroy johnson, and aigul akhmetshina under the baton of vassilis christopoulos. In october, poulenc's dialogues of the carmelites, an Opera that had its us premiere by San Francisco Opera in 1957, returned to the stage with a powerful cast led by heidi stober, michaela schuster, deanna breiwick, melody moore, and michelle bradley in the olivier py production and eun sun kim on the conductor's podium. November saw the premieres of two new productions built by the company's craftspeople in its scenery and costume shops. On november 11, the curtain rose on the new staging of verdi's la traviata by director shawna lucey and designer robert innes hopkins for audiences in the war memorial Opera house and, through an Opera at the ballpark simulcast, on the field and in the stands at oracle park, the home of the San Francisco giants. The Opera featured the debuts of pretty yende, jonathan tetelman, simone piazzola in the leading roles and eun sun kim conducting. The new production of gluck's orpheus and eurydice, an Opera only staged once before in company history, was by director matthew ozawa and choreographer rena butler with peter whelan conducting a cast featuring countertenor jakub jozef orlinski as orpheus with meigui zhang, nicole heaston, San Francisco Opera dance corps, and the San Francisco Opera chorus under company chorus director john keene.the 2023 summer season commenced june 3 with a new co-production of puccini's madama butterfly by director amon miyamoto and conducted by eun sun kim featuring karah son, michael fabiano, lucas meachem, and hyona kim. On june 4, strauss' die frau ohne schatten, another masterpiece that had its american premiere by San Francisco Opera in the 1950s, was presented with a cast headed by camilla nylund, nina stemme, linda watson, david butt philip, and john reuter under the baton of former company music director donald runnicles in the production by iconic visual artist david hockney. The final Opera of the season was, like the opener antony and cleopatra, a new work commissioned by San Francisco Opera for the celebration of its milestone 100th season. El ultimo sueno de frida y diego by composer gabriela lena frank and librettist nilo cruz had its local premiere in lorena maza's production, conducted by roberto kalb, and starring daniela mack, alfredo daza, yaritza veliz, and jake ingbar.on june 16, the company presented the 100th anniversary concert, a celebratory gala event featuring 15 leading operatic soloists and 3 conductors with the San Francisco Opera orchestra and chorus in a program that was augmented by projected images showing key moments and performers from the company's first 100 years. The roster for this once-in-a-century aggregation of operatic talents featured karita mattila, ailyn perez, patricia racette, nina stemme, heidi stober, adela zaharia, susan graham, daniela mack, lawrence brownlee, michael fabiano, brandon jovanovich, russell thomas, lucas meachem, brian mulligan, christian van horn and conductors eun sun kim, donald runnicles, and patrick summers. The concert was livestreamed and a special dinner with the artists benefit was held afterwards.along with its mainstage Opera and concert presentations, the company celebrated the launch of the 2022-23 season on september 11 with its annual free Opera in the park concert featuring artists from the fall season with eun sun kim conducting the San Francisco Opera orchestra. The company showcased the artists of the San Francisco Opera chorus and its resident artists, the adler fellows, in concerts in different venues. Chorus director john keene led his first chorus concert at the taube atrium theater on december 4. The adler fellows were featured in a year-end concert, the future is now, at herbst theater on december 2 conducted by eun sun kim leading the San Francisco Opera orchestra. Several ancillary programs were unveiled to engage the community in centennial celebrations and share San Francisco Opera's history widely. A special mobile stage production of puccini's la boheme was created to present a free, hour-long performance of the Opera with a cast of adler fellows and invited artists. The boheme out of the box performances were given in alameda, south San Francisco, los gatos, and dublin in the spring of 2023. A community open house on october 23 invited members of the bay area community to explore the Opera house and engage in crafts, learn about how Opera is made, and to walk across the stage with company members as their guides. A storytelling workshop, the Opera in you, was launched in partnership with the San Francisco public library. Numerous weekend workshops were held in the fall of 2022 that culminated in an april 22 free storytelling showcase at the green room in the veterans building. To share the company's great history, streaming the first century was launched in september 2022 with four releases of historical performances, interviews, and newly commissioned essays. The project made 8 complete San Francisco Opera performances and 25 excerpted performances available for free streaming and other digital content available on a special website, sfopera.com/firstcentury. Additionally, three museum exhibitions devoted to the history of San Francisco Opera were mounted during the season at the sfo museum at the San Francisco international airport, the museo italo americano, and the San Francisco public library.the company's in song video portrait series, which was launched in 2021 with lumahai productions and nominated for two webby awards and won the webby's "people's voice award" in 2022, continued with two new episodes. Soprano pretty yende was featured in a 19-minute film that follows her return and connection with family, congregation and school in her native south africa. The other new installment in the in song series was shot on location in buenos aires and spotlights daniela mack as she traces her familial and musical roots, performing art songs and tango.san franciso Opera's 2022-23 season marked only the third time that an american Opera company reached its 100th season. The historic season witnessed numerous events at the war memorial Opera house, atrium theater, herbst theatre, golden gate park, public spaces in the bay area communities of alameda, south San Francisco, los gatos, and dublin, and online viewing from music lovers in 44 us states and 22 countries around the world.

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 (see schedule o) crocetto, nancy gustafson, patricia racette, 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.