San Francisco Opera’s 102nd season opens September 6 with Caroline H. Hume Music Director Eun Sun Kim leading a weekend of festivities. Opera Ball, co-presented by San Francisco Opera and San Francisco Opera Guild, ushers in the 2024–25 Season with celebrations at City Hall and the War Memorial Opera House along with the opening of a new-to-San Francisco Opera production of Giuseppe Verdi’s UN BALLO IN MASCHERA. On Sunday, September 8 Kim will lead the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and stars of the new season in the annual, free Opera in the Park concert at Robin Williams Meadow in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.
Highlights of the Fall Season include Leo Muscato’s production of UN BALLO IN MASCHERA (September 6–27) conducted by Eun Sun Kim. American tenor Michael Fabiano, Armenian soprano Lianna Haroutounian, the fast-rising Mongolian baritone Amartuvshin Enkhbat in his Company debut, Chinese soprano Mei Gui Zhang and Romanian mezzo-soprano Judit Kutasi star in Verdi’s fast-paced work. Next comes the West Coast premiere of THE HANDMAID’S TALE (September 14–October 1), composer Poul Ruders and librettist Paul Bentley’s acclaimed operatic adaptation of the best-selling novel by Margaret Atwood. Mezzo-soprano Irene Roberts heads an assemblage of riveting stage artists in this vision of a dystopic American future where women are held in child-bearing servitude. Karen Kamensek conducts the new co-production by San Francisco Opera and The Royal Danish Theatre directed by John Fulljames.
Wagner’s path-breaking masterpiece TRISTAN UND ISOLDE (October 19–November 5) returns to the War Memorial Opera House stage for the first time in nearly two decades with Eun Sun Kim at the helm. Simon O’Neill and Anja Kampe are featured in the title roles in director Paul Curran’s production from Venice’s Teatro La Fenice.
Along with her leadership of towering operas by Verdi and Wagner, Kim will lead the amassed forces of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and Chorus and four vocal soloists in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (October 26) in a special, one-night-only performance honoring the work’s 200th anniversary.
The Fall Season concludes with Francesca Zambello’s production of CARMEN (November 13–December 1) featuring mezzo-soprano Eve-Maud Hubeaux as Carmen and soprano Louise Alder as Micaëla, both in their American debuts, tenor Jonathan Tetelman performing Don José for the first time and bass-baritone Christian Van Horn as Escamillo. Benjamin Manis joins the Company to conduct this spectacular revival. The Company’s popular Encounter series returns on November 21 with CARMEN ENCOUNTER where attendees take in the first portion of Bizet’s opera followed by an immersion in the world of Carmen within a transformed Opera House.