On August 1, 2019, the Merola Opera Program of San Francisco will world premiere Jake Heggie’s new opera, “If I Were You.” This also marks the first work commissioned in the program’s long history of artistic development.

The Merola Opera Program has announced that “If I Were You” will be conducted by Nicole Paiement, and directed by Keturah Stickann.

The story grapples with themes of identity, and pays homage to tales such as “Faust” or “Jekyll and Hyde.” The press release describes the main character, Fabian Hart, as “an aspiring writer who yearns for adventure and a way out of his stifling existence. Brittomara, a shape-shifting devil, appears to him in many guises, finally offering Fabian a supernatural power that will allow the writer to transfer his soul into other people’s bodies, living their lives as their own souls languish in a shadowy netherworld.  Thus begins the journey of ‘If I Were You’ as Fabian moves his increasingly lost soul from person to person in search of a better identity, leaving a trail of human wreckage and hollow shells. When the promise of profound love compels him to return to his original body, he must face the great existential question: live an immortal but lonely existence as someone else, or face imminent death while deeply loved as yourself?”

The opera continues in a line of works created by the team of Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer, such as “Moby Dick;” “Three Decembers,” which featured Frederica von Stade; and “To Hell and Back,” with Patti LuPone and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra.

Conductor Nicole Paiement serves as Artistic Director of Opera Parallele, and recently conducted the world premiere of Luciano Chessa’s opera “A Heavenly Act.” Director Keturah Stickann has helped to stage productions of “Orphee,” “Samson et Delila,” “Rigoletto,” “La Fanciulla del West,” Otello,” and more.