San Francisco Opera's 2025 Summer Season at the War Memorial Opera House, June 3–27
Puccini’s LA BOHÈME returns under the baton of Ramón Tebar with two casts including Pene Pati and Evan LeRoy Johnson as Rodolfo and Karen Chia-ling Ho and Nicole Car as Mimì
Music Director Eun Sun Kim leads new production of Mozart’s IDOMENEO in Lindy Hume's production starring Matthew Polenzani, Daniela Mack, Ying Fang, Elza van den Heever
PRIDE CONCERT hosted by Monét X Change celebrates LGBTQIA+ community with concert and dance party in the Opera House
Free, mobile-stage BOHÈME OUT OF THE BOX production visits Bay Area communities beginning in April
Tickets available at (415) 864-3330 and sfopera.com
SAN FRANCISCO, CA (March 4, 2025) — San Francisco Opera’s 2024–25 mainstage season continues at the War Memorial Opera House June 3–27 with a revival of Puccini’s La Bohème featuring two extraordinary casts, a new-to-San Francisco Opera production of Mozart’s early masterpiece Idomeneo and a one-night-only Pride Concert.
Design your own subscriptions and single tickets are available now for the Summer Season. Discounted Dolby Family Opera for the Bay tickets at $10 each for Bay Area residents who have not purchased a performance ticket in the past three years will be offered beginning at noon on April 22 (La Bohème) and 29 (Idomeneo and Pride Concert). For tickets and information, visit sfopera.com. The third performance of La Bohème (June 10) and Idomeneo (June 20) will be livestreamed, with a 48-hour on-demand period. Tickets and information about livestreams available at sfopera.com/digital/livestream.
LA BOHÈME by Giacomo Puccini
June 3–21
La Bohème, Puccini’s beloved opera about love and loss among a group of Parisian artists, returns to the War Memorial Opera House stage in San Francisco Opera’s “elegant staging” (Mercury News) by John Caird with production designer David Farley, lighting designer Michael Clark and revival director Katherine M. Carter. Conductor Ramón Tebar, who was hailed for bringing “vivacious energy” (San Francisco Chronicle) to Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore in 2023, leads the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, Chorus and two brilliant casts in Puccini’s popular work. John Keene, the Company’s Chorus Director since 2022, prepares the artists of the San Francisco Opera Chorus.
Samoan tenor Pene Pati brings his portrayal of the poet Rodolfo, which has touched audiences in Europe and Canada, to San Francisco for the first time. Tenor Evan LeRoy Johnson, whose Company debut as Lensky in Eugene Onegin “filled the cavernous War Memorial with gorgeous, well-focused, lyrical voice (San Francisco Classical Voice), alternates as Rodolfo. Taiwanese soprano Karen Chia-ling Ho, who first appeared with the Company as Princess Jia in the world premiere of Bright Sheng and David Henry Hwang’s Dream of the Red Chamber, makes her role debut as Mimì. Soprano Nicole Car, a “poignant, eloquent figure” (San Francisco Chronicle) in her 2022 Company debut as Donna Elvira in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, shares the role of Mimì.
Musetta will be performed by Andrea Carroll, in her Company debut, and Brittany Renee, who was last seen on the War Memorial Opera House stage as Julie in Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels’ Omar. Beloved San Francisco Opera artist Lucas Meachem shares the role of Marcello with debuting baritone Will Liverman, a standout at the Metropolitan Opera in recent performances of Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones and Anthony Davis’ X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X. Bass Bogdan Talos joins the Company as Colline for all performances, and second-year San Francisco Opera Adler Fellow Samuel Kidd is Schaunard. San Francisco Opera Medal recipient Dale Travis performs Benoit and Alcindoro.
NEW-TO-SAN FRANCISCO OPERA PRODUCTION
IDOMENEO by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
June 14–25
Mozart’s Idomeneo takes place in the aftermath of the Trojan War when a fateful oath to the gods by a shipwrecked king precipitates an impossible dilemma: save his people or his own son. San Francisco Opera’s Caroline H. Hume Music Director Eun Sun Kim, who brought “the supportive grace we’ve come to expect from her” (San Francisco Chronicle) to Mozart’s The Magic Flute last summer, conducts one of the composer’s first operas which he completed when he was only 24 years old. Chorus Director John Keene prepares the San Francisco Opera Chorus for the moving choral scenes in Mozart’s opera.
Lindy Hume makes her Company debut directing her recent Opera Australia and Victoria Opera co-production which enhances the dramatic tensions onstage with imagery of the surging seas and craggy coastlines of Tasmania. The production features scenery originally designed by Michael Yeargan with additional consulting by Richard Roberts and the work of costume designer Anna Cordingley, lighting designer Verity Hampson, projection designer David Bergman and cinematography by Catherine Pettman of Sheoak Films.
Tenor Matthew Polenzani brings his acclaimed portrayal of Idomeneo to San Francisco Opera for the first time. Daniela Mack, who portrayed Frida Kahlo in Gabriela Lena Frank and Nilo Cruz’s El último sueño de Frida y Diego and Rosmira in Handel’s Partenope in recent seasons, returns as Idomeneo’s son, Idamante, a role she first sang here in 2008. Chinese soprano Ying Fang, whom the New York Times declared “indispensable in Mozart,” makes her house debut as the captured Trojan princess, Ilia. Leading dramatic soprano Elza van den Heever returns to San Francisco Opera as Elettra, a rival for Idamante’s love. Tenor Alek Shrader, who recently appeared with the Company as Emilio in Partenope alongside his wife, Daniela Mack, reprises his role as the High Priest, Arbace, which he performed in 2008 while the couple were San Francisco Opera Adler Fellows.
The cast includes third-year Adler Fellow Jongwon Han (Voice of the Oracle) and a quartet of Adlers making house debuts: Samuel White (Voice of Neptune, Trojan Man), Georgiana Adams (Cretan Woman), Mary Hoskins (Cretan Woman) and Olivier Zerouali (Trojan Man).
PRIDE CONCERT
Friday, June 27 at 7:30 p.m.
San Francisco Opera has been a proud participant in San Francisco Pride since it began in the 1970s. The Company’s 2025 Summer Season draws to a close on the eve of San Francisco Pride Weekend with a celebration of the LGBTQIA+ community hosted by multi-hyphenate artist Monét X Change. Classically trained in opera and winner of Season 4 of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars, Monét X Change will be joined by San Francisco Opera soloists mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton, baritone Brian Mulligan and mezzo-soprano Nikola Printz for an 80-minute program featuring music by queer composers, librettists and songwriters including Tchaikovsky, Jake Heggie, Harold Arlen and the Indigo Girls. San Francisco Opera Music Director Eun Sun Kim and conductor Robert Mollicone, a former Adler Fellow, lead the San Francisco Opera Orchestra while Tal Rosner’s video projections extend from the stage into the auditorium in this immersive visual and musical experience. Following the concert, a dance party will ensue in the lobby of the War Memorial Opera House with music by DJ Juanita MORE!
LIVESTREAM SCHEDULE
The third performances of La Bohème and Idomeneo will be livestreamed. Tickets for the streams, which include a 48-hour on-demand window to access the performance, are $27.50. All times for livestream performances below are Pacific Time (PT). For more information, visit sfopera.com/digital/livestream.
LA BOHÈME Tuesday, June 10 at 7:30 p.m.
IDOMENEO Friday, June 20 at 7:30 p.m.
BOHÈME OUT OF THE BOX
Returning for its third consecutive year, San Francisco Opera’s popular Bohème Out of the Box presentation of an abridged version of La Bohème with piano accompaniment out of a converted shipping container will visit Bay Area communities in April, May and June. The cast will include current San Francisco Opera Adler Fellows Caroline Corrales (Mimì), Samuel White (Rodolfo), Georgiana Adams (Musetta), Samuel Kidd (Marcello) and Jongwon Han (Colline) with Philip Skinner (Benoit/Alcindoro). Adler Fellows Ji Youn Lee and Julian Grabarek will alternate performances at the piano and Jose Maria Condemi directs. Full venue details will be announced soon. For more information, including directions, parking, public transit and event updates, visit sfopera.com/box.
*For the complete press release, including cast and calendar, open the PDF version above.