(Credit: Nico Henderson for Drew Altizer Photography)

The annual “An Evening on the Stage” gala dinner at San Francisco Opera honored The Littlefield Family on November 30, 2021. The annual event was held on the War Memorial Opera House stage amid the setting for Mozart’s “Così fan tutte.”

The Littlefield Family has supported San Francisco Opera for multiple generations beginning with the late Jeannik Méquet Littlefield, whose $35 million gift to the Company in 2006 was, at the time, the largest gift to an American opera company from a single individual.

Jeannik Méquet Littlefield’s daughter Denise Littlefield Sobel donated a $200,000 gift to the Company’s Department of Diversity, Equity and Community. The gift will help in underwriting the DEC staff members at the Opera.

Musical guests included Ed Littlefield Jr., Jeannik Méquet Littlefield’s son, on vocals and guitar; San Francisco Opera Guild Opera Scout mezzo-soprano Amarech Mendez; San Francisco Opera Adler Fellows baritone Timothy Murray and mezzo-soprano Simone McIntosh; and pianists John-Elliott Kirk and Adler Fellow Kseniia Polstiankina Barrad performing selections from “Cendrillon,” “Don Giovanni,” and “Hamlet;” songs from Anastasia and South Pacific; “La Vie en Rose;” and a medley of French folk songs. San Francisco-based ensemble The Dick Bright Orchestra provided the music for the dance floor.

Previous “Evening on the Stage” honorees include Charlotte Mailliard Shultz; Diane B. Wilsey; Gordon Getty; Franklin P. (Pitch) Johnson, Jr.; Dianne and Tad Taube; John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn; and Carol and Dixon Doll.