San Francisco Opera Announces 2025–26 Season Opening September 5
World premiere of THE MONKEY KING (猴王悟空) by Huang Ruo and David Henry Hwang and a new production of Wagner’s PARSIFAL highlight Company’s 103rd season
Music Director Eun Sun Kim conducts Wagner’s PARSIFAL in new staging by director Matthew Ozawa, Verdi’s RIGOLETTO, Strauss’ ELEKTRA and a Beethoven and Manuel de Falla concert
Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally’s DEAD MAN WALKING in 25th anniversary presentation celebrating San Francisco Opera world premiere
September 5–7 opening weekend features OPERA BALL, RIGOLETTO and 50th anniversary free OPERA IN THE PARK concert
Rossini’s THE BARBER OF SEVILLE, ELEKTRA, PRIDE CONCERT and THE BARBER OF SEVILLE ENCOUNTER in Summer 2026
Subscriptions available at (415) 864-3330 and sfopera.com
SAN FRANCISCO, CA (February 4, 2025) — San Francisco Opera Tad and Dianne Taube General Director Matthew Shilvock and Caroline H. Hume Music Director Eun Sun Kim announced today details for the Company’s 2025–26 Season. The Company’s 103rd season, which marks Shilvock’s tenth as general director, kicks off September 5 with an opening weekend celebration under Kim’s baton featuring the annual Opera Ball, co-presented with San Francisco Opera Guild, Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto starring acclaimed baritone Amartuvshin Enkhbat and Opera in the Park, the free, annual concert at Golden Gate Park in its 50th year.
Keystones of the 2025–26 Season are the world premiere of The Monkey King by composer Huang Ruo and librettist David Henry Hwang, and a new production of Richard Wagner’s Parsifal. The Monkey King centers around the mythic hero from China’s classic novel Journey to the West, whose popularity has exploded through film, television, animation and, most recently, the 2024 blockbuster video game Black Myth: Wukong.
Eun Sun Kim, San Francisco Opera’s Music Director since 2021, continues her journey through the works of Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner with Verdi’s Rigoletto and, in a brand-new staging by director Matthew Ozawa, Wagner’s final opera, Parsifal, along with Strauss’ Elektra. Kim also leads the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and mezzo-soprano soloist Daniela Mack in a special one-night-only concert featuring the music of Ludwig van Beethoven and Manuel de Falla. Kim’s ongoing collaboration with the Company is the subject of the recent 60-minute film Eun Sun Kim: A Journey Into Lohengrin by Lumahai Productions and San Francisco Opera.
San Francisco Opera commemorates its legacy of commissioning and presenting new operas with a 25th-anniversary presentation of Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally’s Dead Man Walking. Commissioned by San Francisco Opera and premiered in October 2000, Dead Man Walking is the most widely performed new opera of the last 25 years.
San Francisco Opera’s 2025–26 Season culminates in Summer 2026 with Gioachino Rossini’s The Barber of Seville (Il Barbiere di Siviglia) with two brilliant casts, Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s monumental Elektra, a Pride Concert celebrating the LGBTQIA+ community and the continuation of the Company’s popular Encounter series with The Barber of Seville Encounter.
Chorus Director John Keene prepares the artists of the San Francisco Opera Chorus for the operas of the 2025–26 Season and leads them in a Chorus Concert at the Dianne and Tad Taube Atrium Theater on November 23. The Company’s resident artists, the Adler Fellows, will have their annual showcase with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra on November 21 at Herbst Theatre.
General Director Matthew Shilvock said: “Bringing two epic new productions to life simultaneously is an incredible affirmation of the Company’s talents across so many disciplines and the community’s support for large-scale creativity. A new Parsifal is a major undertaking for any opera company and to be doing it with the leadership of Eun Sun Kim and Matthew Ozawa promises to be a sublime experience. With The Monkey King and Dead Man Walking we celebrate the Company’s historic commitment to storytelling that makes a difference. And the whole season is filled with artistry that affirms the Bay Area as one of the great cultural centers of the world. I’m very excited for what lies ahead!”
Music Director Eun Sun Kim said: “Several of opera’s great masterpieces make up our 2025–26 Season. The opener, Rigoletto, was considered by Verdi himself to be his best opera, and Parsifal returns to our stage for the first time in 25 years. Wagner labored for many years on his final work, but the musical language and storytelling in Parsifal are so advanced that when we do our job in the pit it is a theatrical experience like no other. Elektra marks a transition for Richard Strauss from the melodic language in his early tone poems to an expansive instrumentation of vast harmonic possibility. The opera is so demanding, especially for the singers, and I am very happy to be conducting this first Elektra of my career with my orchestra and such a wonderful cast.
“The San Francisco Opera Orchestra and I customarily work together in the orchestra pit, but these musicians, due to their vast experience, can also command the stage. In our fall concert, the Orchestra will do just that in Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. We will also perform music by Manuel de Falla who across national and language barriers absorbed Beethoven’s influence, even citing the famous ‘fate’ motif from the Fifth Symphony in his ballet. Falla’s lovely song cycle will feature the beautiful voice of Daniela Mack.”
NEW WORKS—PAST AND PRESENT
Huang Ruo and David Henry Hwang’s The Monkey King (2025), set design by Basil Twist;
World premiere of Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally’s Dead Man Walking (2000). Photo: Ken Friedman
The 2025–26 Season celebrates the Company’s commitment to new works with the world premiere of a new opera, The Monkey King, and an anniversary revival of a past commission, Dead Man Walking.
San Francisco Opera has long been a home for new operas, beginning in the 1920s during the Company’s first decade when Puccini’s still-new works Il Trittico and Turandot were featured. The Company has presented the American premieres of operas by composers including Maurice Ravel (L’Enfant et les Sortilèges, 1930), Francis Poulenc (Dialogues of the Carmelites, 1957), Richard Strauss (Die Frau ohne Schatten, 1958), Benjamin Britten (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 1961), Olivier Messiaen (Saint François d’Assise, 2002), György Ligeti (Le Grand Macabre, 2004) and Kaija Saariaho (Innocence, 2024).
Since its first commissioned opera in 1961 (Norman Dello Joio’s Blood Moon), San Francisco Opera has worked to expand the operatic repertoire with more than 30 new commissions and co-commissions by leading composers and librettists, such as:
- Jake Heggie’s first opera, Dead Man Walking (2000), and Three Decembers (2008), Moby-Dick (2012) and It’s a Wonderful Life (2018).
- Berkeley-based composer John Adams’ The Death of Klinghoffer (1992), Doctor Atomic (2005), Girls of the Golden West (2017) and, most recently, Antony and Cleopatra (2022), which opened San Francisco Opera’s Centennial Season.
- The late Kaija Saariaho’s final opera, Innocence (2024), exploring the events leading up to and the aftermath of a school shooting.
- Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels’ Omar (2023), about West African Islamic scholar Omar ibn Said who wrote his life story while living under slavery in 19th-century America.
- Composer Mason Bates and librettist Mark Campbell’s The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs (2023), with the composer performing in the pit with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra.
- The Company’s first Spanish-language opera, El último sueño de Frida y Diego (2023) by Gabriela Lena Frank and Nilo Cruz, about iconic artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera.
- Bright Sheng and David Henry Hwang’s Dream of the Red Chamber (2016), like The Monkey King, based on one of the four great classic Chinese novels.
- Stewart Wallace and Amy Tan’s The Bonesetter’s Daughter (2008) with scenes set in Beijing, Hong Kong and San Francisco.
- Philip Glass and Christopher Hampton’s Appomattox (2007), about the meeting between Generals Grant and Lee that brought the American Civil War to a close.
- Stewart Wallace and Michael Korie’s Harvey Milk (1996), about the first openly gay member of San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors.
San Francisco Opera’s recently relaunched performance database (archive.sfopera.com) contains complete cast and production details for the above works and others, illustrating San Francisco Opera’s engagement with 20th- and 21st-century opera creators throughout a history of more than 100 years.
Future San Francisco Opera seasons will continue to feature new works, including the co-commission of Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s The Galloping Cure, examining addiction and the opioid crisis. Upcoming seasons also include a new co-production with English National Opera of Thea Musgrave’s Mary, Queen of Scots, which had its West Coast premiere by San Francisco Opera affiliate Spring Opera Theater in 1979 with the composer on the podium.
2025–26 SEASON
**OPENING OF SAN FRANCISCO OPERA’S 103RD SEASON**
OPERA BALL
Friday, September 5, 2025 at 5 p.m.
Scenes from Opera Ball. Photos: Drew Altizer Photography
San Francisco Opera’s opening night Opera Ball, co-presented with San Francisco Opera Guild, is one of the premier events on the Bay Area’s philanthropic and social calendars. The annual fundraiser begins with a cocktail reception and formal dinner at City Hall. Guests then proceed to the Opera House for the opening of the new season with Music Director Eun Sun Kim leading Verdi’s Rigoletto. Dancing and late-night bites await back at City Hall after the performance.
Opera Ball is made possible, in part, by Opening Weekend Grand Sponsor Diane B. Wilsey and is co-chaired by Jennifer Bienaimé and Isabel Rhee. Proceeds benefit a wide range of artistic initiatives at San Francisco Opera and San Francisco Opera Guild’s education programs, which reach thousands in K–12 classrooms and after-school programs.
RIGOLETTO by Giuseppe Verdi
September 5–27, 2025
Scenes from Rigoletto. Photos: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera
San Francisco Opera’s 103rd season opens with Rigoletto, one of the most popular and powerful operas in the repertoire. Giuseppe Verdi’s 1851 tragic work follows the titular jester who mocks the Duke of Mantua’s courtiers while attempting to shelter his daughter from their depraved world. Music Director Eun Sun Kim leads this fast-paced classic which includes some of the composer’s most heart-rending and buoyant music like the famous aria “La donna è mobile.”
Eun Sun Kim, Jose Maria Condemi, Amartuvshin Enkhbat, Giovanni Sala, Adela Zaharia, J’Nai Bridges, Peixin Chen
Following his 2024 Company debut in Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera, Mongolian baritone Amartuvshin Enkhbat returns as Rigoletto. Romanian soprano Adela Zaharia, who portrayed Donna Anna in Mozart’s Don Giovanni in 2022 and was last seen here in the 100th Anniversary Concert, is Rigoletto’s daughter, Gilda. Italian tenor Giovanni Sala makes his American opera debut as the Duke of Mantua. Mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges, who has portrayed Carmen with the Company and was featured in the In Song series, is Maddalena. Chinese bass Peixin Chen joins the Company as Sparafucile, and baritone Aleksey Bogdanov is Monterone. Jose Maria Condemi directs San Francisco Opera’s production.
**50TH ANNIVERSARY**
San Francisco Chronicle Presents
OPERA IN THE PARK
Sunday, September 7, 2025 at 1:30 p.m.
Scenes from Opera in the Park. Photos: Kristen Loken/San Francisco Opera
Opening weekend culminates with Opera in the Park, the annual free concert at Robin Williams Meadow in Golden Gate Park. This season’s event marks the 50th presentation of the beloved San Francisco tradition which began in 1971 and has been a showcase for many operatic luminaries, including Marilyn Horne and Luciano Pavarotti. The concert features the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and vocal soloists from the 2025–26 Season under the baton of Eun Sun Kim. Bring your picnic baskets for this al fresco gathering attended by thousands of Bay Area residents and visitors each year.
**25TH-ANNIVERSARY PRESENTATION**
DEAD MAN WALKING by Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally
September 14–28, 2025
Scenes from Dead Man Walking. Photos: Ken Howard/Lyric Opera of Chicago
Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally’s Dead Man Walking, based on Sister Helen Prejean’s best-selling memoir, returns to the stage where it all began. Proclaimed “a masterpiece” (San Francisco Chronicle) at its 2000 world premiere, the opera follows Sister Helen’s spiritual journey while she ministers to a condemned man on death row. With 80 productions in 13 countries, Dead Man Walking is the most performed new opera of the last 25 years.
Commissioned by San Francisco Opera, Dead Man Walking was Bay Area composer Jake Heggie’s first work for the opera stage. Over the ensuing 25 years, Heggie has expanded the operatic repertoire with numerous works and has been acknowledged as one of the art form’s leading creators. This year, Heggie will be inducted into the OPERA America Hall of Fame and Musical America named him Composer of the Year (2025) for his work which includes Moby-Dick (2010), Great Scott (2015), It’s a Wonderful Life (2016) and Intelligence (2023). Patrick Summers, who conducted the first production of Dead Man Walking and has led the premieres of nearly all of Heggie’s operas, returns to conduct San Francisco Opera’s 25th-anniversary presentation. Created by a consortium of seven American opera companies and now owned by Lyric Opera of Chicago, the production by frequent Heggie collaborator Leonard Foglia exhibits the work of designers Michael McGarty (sets), Jess Goldstein (costumes), Brian Nason (lighting), Elaine McCarthy (projections) and Roger Gans (sound). Katrina Bachus is the associate director.
Jake Heggie, Patrick Summers, Leonard Foglia, Jamie Barton, Ryan McKinny, Susan Graham, Brittany Renee
Just as Dead Man Walking continues to resonate with new audiences, so, too, have today’s leading singers been drawn to the piece, establishing an artistic lineage with the performers who created its principal roles. Mezzo-soprano Susan Graham, the first Sister Helen in 2000, returns to the work as Mrs. Patrick De Rocher, the role originated by legendary mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade. Jamie Barton, who has triumphed with San Francisco Opera in works by Bellini, Donizetti, Dvořák and Wagner, adds her “nuanced ... intriguingly conflicted and tormented” (Atlanta Journal-Constitution) portrayal of Sister Helen to her repertoire with the Company (an episode of In Song spotlights the mezzo-soprano’s roots in Georgia and includes performances with banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck). Ryan McKinny brings to San Francisco Opera his acclaimed interpretation of death-row inmate Joseph De Rocher witnessed at the Metropolitan Opera and Lyric Opera of Chicago. Brittany Renee, following her appearances in Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abel’s Omar and scheduled return this summer in Puccini’s La Bohème, takes on the role of Sister Helen’s confidante, Sister Rose.
Dead Man Walking composer Jake Heggie said: “This production of Dead Man Walking represents one of the most astonishing, full-circle moments of my career. It’s hard to believe it was 25 years ago when the opera premiered here to phenomenal acclaim. No one could have predicted the journey it would make, with 80 international productions to date. This was all made possible by an inspiring and deeply gratifying collaboration with the great Terrence McNally through the vision and guidance of longtime San Francisco Opera General Director Lotfi Mansouri. It’s especially meaningful that Dead Man Walking will return to San Francisco in a gorgeous production led by two of my closest collaborators and creative soulmates, conductor Patrick Summers and director Leonard Foglia, and a stunning cast with Dead Man Walking veterans Jamie Barton, Ryan McKinny and Susan Graham. I’m grateful beyond measure to celebrate this huge milestone with San Francisco Opera.”
**NEW SAN FRANCISCO OPERA PRODUCTION**
PARSIFAL by Richard Wagner
October 25–November 13, 2025
Act I set design by Robert Innes Hopkins; costume design for Kundry by Jessica Jahn; members of the Parsifal creative team: Robert Innes Hopkins, Jessica Jahn, Matthew Ozawa, Yuki Nakase Link. Photo: Matthew Washburn
Richard Wagner’s Parsifal centers around an improbable hero whose destiny is to lead the Knights of the Holy Grail. For his final work, the iconoclastic poet/composer capitalized on his musical breakthroughs in Tristan und Isolde and the ambitious scope of his Ring of the Nibelung cycle to create a meditation on compassion that bridges Eastern and Western spiritual traditions. Music Director Eun Sun Kim’s exploration of Wagner’s music-dramas brings this masterwork back to the Company’s stage after a 25-year hiatus in a brand-new production by director Matthew Ozawa and a creative team including several collaborators from Ozawa’s critically acclaimed San Francisco Opera production of Orpheus and Eurydice (2022)—costume designer Jessica Jahn, lighting designer Yuki Nakase Link and choreographer Rena Butler—with settings designed by Robert Innes Hopkins, who designed the Company’s recent productions of Tosca and La Traviata.
Eun Sun Kim, Matthew Ozawa, Brandon Jovanovich, Kwangchul Youn, Brian Mulligan, Tanja Baumgartner, Falk Struckmann
American tenor Brandon Jovanovich heads a spectacular cast as Parsifal, the innocent fool who finds enlightenment through compassion. Wagnerian bass Kwangchul Youn returns to the Company as the Grail knight Gurnemanz, a role for which he is renowned (Youn will sing his 100th performance of the role while in San Francisco). Baritone Brian Mulligan portrays Amfortas, the Grail order’s leader who suffers from a mysterious and unhealable wound. Falk Struckmann, a celebrated Wagnerian who made his debut with San Francisco Opera as Alberich in the 2018 Ring cycle, portrays the fallen knight, Klingsor. Tanja Ariane Baumgartner, who recently triumphed as a late substitution Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde at the Glyndebourne Festival, makes her Company debut as Kundry.
BEETHOVEN & FALLA CONCERT
Saturday, November 1, 2025 at 7:30 p.m.
San Francisco Opera Orchestra on stage with Eun Sun Kim; Music Director Kim; Daniela Mack
Photos: Kristen Loken (left) Stefan Cohen (center), Shervin Lainez (right)
Following the sold-out performance of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in October 2024, Eun Sun Kim and the San Francisco Opera Orchestra return to the Opera House stage in a one-night-only concert featuring Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony along with Spanish composer Manuel de Falla’s Siete Canciones Populares Españolas with mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack as soloist and a suite of dances from Falla’s ballet El Sombrero de Tres Picos (The Three-Cornered Hat).
**WORLD PREMIERE**
THE MONKEY KING (猴王悟空) by Huang Ruo and David Henry Hwang
November 14–30, 2025
Huang Ruo, David Henry Hwang. Costume design by Anita Yavich and set design by Basil Twist for The Monkey King
Composer Huang Ruo and librettist David Henry Hwang’s new, action-hero opera The Monkey King (猴王悟空) leaps onto the War Memorial Opera House stage beginning November 14 in one of the most highly anticipated world premieres of the opera season. Commissioned by San Francisco Opera in partnership with the Chinese Heritage Foundation of Minnesota, The Monkey King is based on the opening chapter of Journey to the West, a novel from the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) widely considered one of China’s greatest literary classics. The story has been a perennial favorite in Peking Opera for centuries and, more recently, in film, television and animation, as well as the 2024 blockbuster video game Black Myth: Wukong which sold 18 million copies in its first two months. The story’s debut on the Western opera stage, performed in English and Chinese and uniting the disciplines of opera, dance and puppetry, follows the ambitious young monkey born from a stone who becomes the ruler of the monkeys and challenges the gods of the seas and heavens in a bid for immortality.
Huang Ruo has won extensive praise for his incisive, lyrical works in a variety of musical genres, from his puppet opera Book of Mountains and Seas and oratorio Angel Island to his operatic collaborations with Tony Award-winning playwright and librettist David Henry Hwang: An American Soldier, The Rift and M. Butterfly. Hwang’s body of work includes the stage plays M. Butterfly, Yellow Face and Chinglish, the musical Soft Power with composer Jeanine Tesori and libretti for operas by Osvaldo Golijov (Ainadamar), Unsuk Chin (Alice in Wonderland) and Bright Sheng (Dream of the Red Chamber, a San Francisco Opera commission) and five works with Philip Glass. In their newest collaboration, Huang and Hwang have blended ancient Chinese and contemporary Western traditions to create a thrilling new incarnation of this irrepressible hero and global icon.
Carolyn Kuan, Diane Paulus, Basil Twist, Anita Yavich, Ann Yee, Ayumu “Poe” Saegusa, Hana S. Kim
The Monkey King’s high-octane adventures—from the depths of the sea to his epic battle with the gods in heaven—are balanced by moments of repose with the goddess Guanyin and a chorus of Bodhisattvas reflecting on the Monkey King’s progress in Buddhist sutras. The Monkey King’s whimsical and fantastical world will be conjured for the stage by American Repertory Theater’s award-winning artistic director Diane Paulus, renowned puppeteer and Bay Area native Basil Twist (who collaborated with Huang Ruo on Book of Mountains and Seas), costume designer Anita Yavich, choreographer Ann Yee, lighting designer Ayumu “Poe” Saegusa and projection designer Hana S. Kim, with guidance by Peking Opera consultant Jamie Guan. Making her San Francisco Opera debut is conductor Carolyn Kuan, music director of the Hartford Symphony since 2011, who led the New York premiere of Huang Ruo’s An American Soldier and the world premiere of M. Butterfly.
Kang Wang, Mei Gui Zhang, Konu Kim, Jusung Gabriel Park, Peixin Chen, Joo Won Kang, Hongni Wu
Australian-Chinese tenor Kang Wang makes his Company debut as the cunning and charismatic Monkey King. As Guanyin, the Chinese goddess of compassion, soprano Mei Gui Zhang returns after prior successes as Dai Yu in Dream of the Red Chamber, Eurydice in Gluck’s Orpheus and Eurydice and Oscar in Un Ballo in Maschera (her journey to the opera stage is captured in the In Song video portrait series). South Korean tenor Konu Kim, who joined San Francisco Opera as Bao Yu in Dream of the Red Chamber in 2022, returns to create the role of the Jade Emperor. South Korean baritone Jusung Gabriel Park makes his Company debut in the dual roles of the Taoist teacher Subhuti and the Buddha. Bass Peixin Chen is Supreme Lord Laozi, and former Adler Fellow baritone Joo Won Kang is Lord Erlang and Ao Guang. Mezzo-soprano Hongni Wu returns from her Company debut as Bao Chai in Dream of the Red Chamber as the Crab General and Venus Star.
Composer Huang Ruo said: “If dreams do come true, creating The Monkey King 猴王悟空 with my long-time collaborator David Henry Hwang for San Francisco Opera is one of those dreams. Our world is full of superheroes—Superwoman, Spiderman, Batman—and like those we know from American comic books and movies, the Monkey King is every bit an inspirational figure known for his wit, humor, righteousness and power. He is the supreme superhero from Asia, loved and adored not only by the Chinese people throughout the centuries but increasingly by people throughout the world. The Monkey King’s adventures awaken in him an understanding of true power which leads to his self-enlightenment. In our new opera, which blends cultural traditions with a spectacular multidisciplinary production, I hope to bring this Eastern superhero to life and shine a hopeful light that will always appear in any turbulent time.”
To hear the aria “All Dharmas are equal” from The Monkey King, performed by soprano Mei Gui Zhang and pianist John Churchwell, visit sfopera.com/operas/the-monkey-king/media.
A special preview event for The Monkey King will be presented on March 9 at New York’s Guggenheim Museum as part of the Works & Process series. Composer Huang Ruo, librettist David Henry Hwang and director Diane Paulus will be interviewed by writer Ken Smith with live musical excerpts. For tickets and more information, visit Works & Process.
SUMMER 2026
THE BARBER OF SEVILLE by Gioachino Rossini
May 28–June 21, 2026
THE BARBER OF SEVILLE ENCOUNTER
Wednesday, June 17, 2026
Scenes from The Barber of Seville. Photos: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera
One of opera’s greatest comedies, The Barber of Seville (Il Barbiere di Siviglia) returns to the stage in San Francisco Opera’s popular production by Spanish director Emilio Sagi. Conductor Benjamin Manis, fresh from his Company debut in November/December 2024 leading a sold-out run of Bizet’s Carmen, leads two sparkling casts in Rossini’s tuneful classic about the resourceful barber, Figaro, and the two young lovers he helps to outwit an overbearing guardian.
Benjamin Manis, Emilio Sagi, Joshua Hopkins, Levy Sekgapane, Maria Kataeva, Renato Girolami
Joshua Hopkins, last seen with San Francisco Opera as Harry Bailey in Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s It’s a Wonderful Life, and debuting baritone Justin Austin alternate as the jack-of-all-trades Figaro. Russian mezzo-soprano Maria Kataeva makes her American debut as Rosina, sharing the role with Chinese mezzo-soprano Hongni Wu, who appeared with the Company as Bao Chai in Dream of the Red Chamber and is scheduled to perform in the November 2025 world premiere of The Monkey King.
Justin Austin, Jack Swanson, Hongni Wu, Patrick Carfizzi, Riccardo Fassi
Rosina’s dashing suitor, Count Almaviva, will be performed by South African tenor Levy Sekgapane and American tenor Jack Swanson, both making their house debut. The role of Doctor Bartolo will be performed by baritone Renato Girolami and bass-baritone Patrick Carfizzi, each having made a comedic splash as Dr. Dulcamara in the Company’s 2023 performances of Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love. Bass Riccardo Fassi makes his San Francisco Opera debut as Don Basilio.
On Wednesday, June 17, the Company’s popular Encounter series continues with The Barber of Seville Encounter. After experiencing a portion of San Francisco Opera’s production of Rossini’s timeless comedy, audiences will emerge from the theater into the Opera House’s transformed lobby and hallway spaces, transporting them into the opera’s setting in Seville. Part opera, part party, the immersive, uniquely San Francisco Opera event offers a new way to experience opera. Recommended for audiences ages 21 and over.
ELEKTRA by Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal
June 7–27, 2026
Scenes from Elektra. Photos: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera
Music Director Eun Sun Kim takes to the podium in June 2026 for Elektra, a staggering work requiring one of the largest pit orchestras in the operatic repertoire. The first of several artistic collaborations by composer Richard Strauss and librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Elektra’s raw energy and emotions find dramatic expression in Keith Warner’s “extraordinary … stunning” (San Francisco Chronicle) production. Directed in revival by Anja Kühnhold, this staging sets the action in a museum where a young woman finds herself trapped in an exhibition about ancient Greece and lives out Elektra’s tragic obsession to avenge her father, Agamemnon.
Eun Sun Kim, Keith Warner, Anja Kühnhold, Elena Pankratova, Elza van den Heever, Michaela Schuster
An extraordinary trio of artists anchors the cast of Elektra. Elena Pankratova, who has won praise in recent years at the Bayreuth Festival, makes her Company debut in the formidable title role. Michaela Schuster made an indelible impact on Bay Area audiences in 2022 as the Old Prioress, Madame de Croissy, in Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites. In her return to the Company, Schuster takes on Elektra’s embattled mother, Klytämnestra. Leading soprano and beloved San Francisco Opera artist Elza van den Heever, a former Adler Fellow and San Francisco Conservatory of Music graduate, takes on Chrysothemis, Elektra’s conciliatory sister.
PRIDE CONCERT
Friday, June 26, 2026 at 7:30 p.m.
Pride Concert. Photos: Reneff-Olson Productions
San Francisco Opera presents its second Pride Concert in the Opera House just prior to Pride Weekend. The event will showcase the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and soloists in a program celebrating LGBTQIA+ composers, performers, anthems and more. More details will be announced at a later date.
EUN SUN KIM TALKBACKS
In October 2024, Caroline H. Hume Music Director Eun Sun Kim extended her contract through the 2030–31 Season, ensuring that her leadership will continue to build and shape San Francisco Opera’s second century. Along with experiencing her performances, audiences are welcome to join three talkback events to hear from Maestro Kim about the myriad collaborations contributing to the magical productions seen on the stage. Talkbacks take place after select performances and are available to ticket holders of those performances:
RIGOLETTO Sunday, September 21, 2025
PARSIFAL Sunday, November 2, 2025
ELEKTRA Sunday, June 14, 2026
INTRODUCING SATURDAY MATINEES
San Francisco Opera will offer Saturday matinee performances during the 2025–26 Season in addition to its regular Sunday matinee performances. The performances with Saturday matinee options are Rigoletto (September 13), Parsifal (October 25) and The Barber of Seville (June 6 and 20).
DISCOUNT TICKETS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS
The Dolby Family’s Opera for the Bay, the discounted ticket initiative made possible by the Dolby family, continues in 2025–26. Through this popular program, Bay Area residents (home address zip code between 94000 and 95999) who have not purchased tickets in the past three seasons may purchase Dolby Tickets on designated on-sale dates roughly one month prior to the opening of each production or concert for $10 (limit two seats per eligible patron). Dolby ticket inventory is limited and often sells out within a matter of hours. Visit sfopera.com/dolby for more information.
A discounted subscription package, The Osher Future of Opera Subscription, generously underwritten by Bernard and Barbro Osher, will also return this season. Those who have not subscribed to a series of three or more operas in the past three seasons are eligible.
Student and Teacher subscription series are also available, offering a savings of 50%.
LIVESTREAMS
The third performance of each mainstage opera during the 2025-26 Season will be livestreamed, including a 48-hour on-demand viewing window. Free access to the livestreams is a benefit available to Full Season subscribers; tickets for each livestream will be available for $27.50 each when single tickets go on sale this summer. All times below are Pacific Time (PT).
RIGOLETTO Saturday, September 13 at 2 p.m.
DEAD MAN WALKING Saturday, September 20 at 7:30 p.m.
PARSIFAL Sunday, November 2 at 1 p.m.
THE MONKEY KING Tuesday, November 18 at 7:30 p.m.
THE BARBER OF SEVILLE Friday, June 5 at 7:30 p.m.
ELEKTRA Sunday, June 14 at 2 p.m.
*For the complete press release, including calendar and casting, open the PDF version above.