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Reviews, Stage Reviews

San Francisco Opera 2025-26 Review: The Monkey King

https://operawire.com/san-francisco-opera-2025-26-review-the-monkey-king/

The beloved Chinese hero, Monkey, landed in San Francisco Friday night, complete with an entourage of dancers, singers, acrobats, and antics that came from an ancient story revisited, along with video-games and comics, among others. In the Lobby, before the performance, a group of young drummers from Grant High School, Sacramento and dancers from the Chinese American International School with {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

San Francisco Opera 2025-26 Review: Parsifal

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(Photo Credit: Cory Weaver) From the magic of those first ascending B flat minor motifs, to the shimmering chromatic closure, Wagner’s final masterwork “Parsifal” casts a spell of unspeakable radiance. A spell that can fail to materialize when directorial concept goes awry. The Nov. 2nd performance of the San Francisco Opera’s new production of “Parsifal” was an orchestral triumph, and {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

San Francisco Opera 2025-26 Review: Dead Man Walking

https://operawire.com/san-francisco-opera-2025-26-review-dead-man-walking/

(Photo: “Dead Man Walking” by Jake Heggie was twenty-five years old on Sunday, September 14th. In San Francisco, its anniversary was celebrated by the opening of a production, one of the 80 productions worldwide, with the composer, Jake Heggie there to receive the San Francisco Opera Medal, and Sister Helen Prejean, from whose book the opera arose, and retold in {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

San Francisco Opera 2025-26 Review: Rigoletto

https://operawire.com/san-francisco-opera-2025-26-review-rigoletto/

(Photo: Another grand Opening Night at San Francisco Opera Fall 2025 Season, its 103rd. Glamor in sequins and sparkly platform heels, green and mauve brocaded would-be pashas, feathery boas and head-dresses – and this was just the lobby – on the tail of the Annual Opera Ball. Inside, magenta and rose heart-shaped flower-masks adorned the parterre, while colored lights oscillated {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

San Francisco Opera 2024-25 Review: Beethoven Symphony No. 9

https://operawire.com/san-francisco-opera-2024-25-review-beethoven-symphony-no-9/

(Photo: Cory Weaver / San Francisco Opera) We need Beethoven. Especially the 9th Symphony with Schiller’s Ode to Joy. “Freude, schöner Götterfunken/Tochter aus Elysium,/Wir betreten feuertrunken,Himmlische/, dein HeiligtumFreude menschen gotterfunken./Oh friends, no more of these sounds!/Let us sing more cheerful songs, More full of joy!/Joy, bright spark of divinity,/Daughter of Elysium,/Fire-inspired we tread Thy sanctuary!/Thy magic power reunites/All that custom {…}

News

San Francisco Opera to Present Two November Concerts

https://operawire.com/san-francisco-opera-to-present-two-november-concerts/

San Francisco Opera’s 2024-25 season will continue in November with two annual, year-end concerts showcasing the Company’s resident artists, orchestra, and chorus. On Nov. 15, the company will present a concert “The Future is Now” at the Herbst Theatre. The evening will feature 2024 Adler Fellows: sopranos Georgiana Adams, Caroline Corrales, Arianna Rodriguez and Olivia Smith; mezzo-soprano Nikola Printz; tenor {…}

News

Eve-Maud Hubeaux & Jonathan Tetelman Lead San Francisco Opera’s ‘Carmen’ Production

https://operawire.com/eve-maud-hubeaux-jonathan-tetelman-lead-san-francisco-operas-carmen-production/

San Francisco Opera’s 2024 Fall Season concludes with the Bizet’s “Carmen.” The production by Francesca Zambello will be performed between Nov. 13–Dec. 1 at the War Memorial Opera House. Mezzo-soprano Eve-Maud Hubeaux is set to make her American debut in the title role alongside Jonathan Tetelman as Don José, Louise Alder as Micaëla, and Christian Van Horn as Escamillo. The {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

San Francisco Opera Review 2024-25: The Handmaid’s Tale

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(Photo credit: Cory Weaver) The West Coast premiere of “The Handmaid’s Tale“, by composer Poul Ruders and librettist Paul Bentley fills the War Memorial Opera House with a performance as harrowing as the dystopic story itself. Delayed by the pandemic from its originally scheduled debut, the co-production of San Francisco Opera (SFO) and the Royal Danish Theatre runs through October {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

San Francisco Opera 2024-25 Review: Un Ballo in Maschera

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(Photo by Cory Weaver) Festivities galore flooded the San Francisco’s Civic Center Friday night – Opera Ball, Opera Dinner, and the opera itself, Verdi’s, “Un Ballo in Maschera.” Opening night at San Francisco Opera sparkled with taffeta gowns and tux, platform heels and feathers, jewelry glittering up and down arms and nifty bowties. In honor of the entitled opera and {…}