Looking Back at Important Premieres and Commissions at San Francisco Opera
THE DIALOGUES OF THE CARMELITES (1957)
Composed by Francis Poulenc
September 20, 1957 marked two very important American debuts; Francis Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites, and in the starring role, future superstar soprano Leontyne Price.
This first production was sung in English, as Poulenc had expressed a desire for each production to be sung in the local language. Dialogues of the Carmelites was most recently seen on our stage during our Centennial Season in a return to the original French.
Photos: Robert Lackenbach
DIE FRAU OHNE SCHATTEN (1959)
Composed by Richard Strauss / Libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal
FROSCH (as Strauss affectionately called the opera, using the initials of its title to spell the German word for “frog”) premiered on our stage in 1959. San Francisco Opera General Director Kurt Herbert Adler enlisted 27-year-old French director and designer Jean-Pierre Ponnelle to create a production for this American premiere.
You may remember Die Frau ohne Schatten from just last summer when the Company broke its 34-year hiatus with a new-to-San Francisco Opera production by the iconic artist David Hockney. The vibrance of this production coupled with the richness of the music came together in a sweeping success; you know what they say, fifth time's the charm!
Photos: Bill Cogan
HARVEY MILK (1996)
Composed by Steward Wallace / Libretto by Michael Korie
For obvious reasons, Wallace & Korie’s Harvey Milk (a San Francisco Opera co-commission) is especially significant to our city and our Company. The San Francisco Chronicle wrote “Harvey Milk feels like our opera … it was hard not to feel a personal involvement in this subject, and to feel that an opera had been created with a cast of friends and neighbors.”
The opera made its world premiere at Houston Grand Opera on January 21, 1995, and made its way to San Francisco for the West Coast premiere in the fall of 1996. Despite making its world premiere in Texas, this co-commission was particularly resonant with San Francisco audiences as it detailed the life and death of SF city supervisor Harvey Milk, a life ended all too soon by gun violence.
Photos: Ron Scherl
A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (1998)
Composed by André Previn / Libretto by Philip Littell
A Streetcar Named Desire, based on the classic 1947 Tennessee Williams play, made its operatic world premiere at San Francisco Opera in 1998 and quickly became one of the most performed contemporary works in the repertoire.
Commissioned by the Company, the first run of the opera featured the composer himself on the conductor’s podium, and “America’s Diva” Renée Fleming as Blanche Dubois. In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, Previn said “it would make an impact on an audience whether it was a play, an opera or done with puppets. All I can do is hope that what I've written is musically apt.”
Photos: Marty Sohl
DEAD MAN WALKING (2000)
Composed by Jake Heggie / Libretto by Terrence McNally
"When the history of Lotfi Mansouri's tenure as the company's general director comes to be written, Dead Man Walking is certain to loom large, as unquestionably his finest commission and one of the crowning achievements of his regime." - Joshua Kosman, SFGATE
Composed by Jake Heggie with a libretto by playwright Terrence McNally, Dead Man Walking was a San Francisco Opera commission that had its world premiere on our stage on October 7, 2000. Based on Sister Helen Prejean's memoir of the same name, Dead Man Walking is the most widely performed new opera of the last 20 years.
Photos: Ken Friedman
DOCTOR ATOMIC (2005)
Composed by John Adams / Libretto by Peter Sellars
Before Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer’s life was chronicled in a blockbuster movie, it was an opera! Hailed as “America’s greatest living composer,” (SF Gate) John Adams has had a long and fruitful relationship with the Company resulting in works like Girls of the Golden West (2017) and most recently Antony and Cleopatra (2022).
This San Francisco Opera commission made its world premiere at the War Memorial Opera House on October 1, 2005 starring Gerald Finley as the brilliant physicist. The act I finale is a notable moment of the piece. It features the aria “Batter my Heart” which continues to move San Francisco audiences, most recently sung by Brian Mulligan as part of our 100th Anniversary Concert.
Photos: Terrence McCarthy, Ken Friedman
EL ÚLTIMO SUEÑO DE FRIDA Y DIEGO (THE LAST DREAM OF FRIDA AND DIEGO) (2023)
Composed by Gabriela Lena Frank / Libretto by Nilo Cruz
In the summer of 2023 we saw Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera come to life in El último sueño de Frida y Diego (The Last Dream of Frida and Diego), a new co-commissioned opera making its second debut on the War Memorial Opera House stage, just months after it made its world premiere at San Diego Opera.
Created by Bay Area native composer Gabriela Lena Frank and Pullitzer prize-winning librettist Nilo Cruz, this opera brought Mexican art and tradition to our stage with a rich score colored with indigenous instruments, stunning sets that recalled Frida’s bold self portraits and Diego’s vivid frescos, and other-worldly costumes that brought the dead back to life during Día de los Muertos.
Photos: Cory Weaver
INNOCENCE (2024)
Composed by Kaija Saariaho / Finnish Libretto by Sofi Oksanen / Multilingual Libretto by Aleksi Barrière
Saariaho’s sixth and final opera, Innocence, is a co-commission and co-production of Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, San Francisco Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Finnish National Opera and Ballet, and Dutch National Opera. The opera was first performed in 2021 at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and proclaimed, “the most powerful work Saariaho has written in a career now in its fifth decade” (The New York Times).
The opera is sung in an impressive nine languages and brings audiences along the emotional journey of a community in the aftermath of a tragic school shooting that happened 10 years prior. Saariaho specialist Clément Mao-Takacs will lead an impressive cast along with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and Chorus. Innocence makes its American premiere at the War Memorial Opera House on June 1, 2024.