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3 unusual facts about San Francisco Opera


Allen Moyer

His designs have appeared in celebrated productions at the New York City Opera, the San Francisco Opera, the Santa Fe Opera, the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and the Seattle Opera.

Ed Cassidy

He worked in show bands, Dixieland, country and western bands, and on film soundtracks, as well as having a brief stint with the San Francisco Opera.

Joyce Castle

She made her professional opera debut in 1970 at the San Francisco Opera as Siebel in Charles Gounod's Faust.


Cesare Valletti

In September 1953 he made his American debut at the San Francisco Opera in the title role of Werther, opposite Giulietta Simionato as Charlotte, and later that same year, in December, he debuted at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, singing Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, other roles at the Met included; Tamino, Almaviva, Nemorino, Ernesto, Alfredo, des Grieux.

Christopher Larkin

He has also worked as an Assistant Conductor and vocal coach for the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Vancouver Opera, and the Canadian Opera Company.

Colin Graham

Graham directed the world premieres of John Corigliano's opera, The Ghosts of Versailles, for the Metropolitan Opera; The Dangerous Liaisons and André Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire for San Francisco Opera; The Song of Majnun for Lyric Opera of Chicago; and a series of three operas by Miki Minoru.

Elena Nikolaidi

She made her American operatic debut as Amneris in Verdi's Aïda with the San Francisco Opera and reprised the role for her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1951 alongside the debut of George London.

Éva Marton

Since 1983, she has performed the role over a hundred times including at the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, Arena di Verona, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Washington Opera, Opera Company of Boston under Sarah Caldwell (in 1983), Barcelona, and Houston Grand Opera.

Gaetano Merola

In 1937, Merola shed all pretense of a Los Angeles company and formally established a long-running series of annual visits by the San Francisco Opera Association to the Shrine Auditorium.

Garnett Bruce

In recent years, Bruce has served on the directing staffs of Santa Fe Opera, Dallas Opera, Houston Grand Opera, San Diego Opera, Washington National Opera, and San Francisco Opera.

Jun Kaneko

He also designed sets and costumes for opera performances: Opera Omaha's Madama Butterfly (2006) and a co production of the San Francisco Opera, Opera Omaha and the Washington National Opera, The Magic Flute (2012).

Karita Mattila

Mattila appears regularly in the major opera houses worldwide, including the Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera House in London, Théâtre du Châtelet, Opéra Bastille, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Vienna State Opera, Toronto Roy Thomson Hall and Großes Festspielhaus, Salzburg and with top orchestras.

KUAT-FM

The broadcast schedule consists of playlists announced by local hosts, as well as nationally syndicated broadcasts, including those from the San Francisco Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera and San Francisco Opera during their seasons, the Exploring Music program with host Bill McGlaughlin, and the Radio Netherlands Live! at the Concertgebouw series.

Long Beach Opera

Michael Milenski, formerly of the San Francisco Opera and San Jose Opera, was tapped to mount the first production in March, 1979, Verdi’s La Traviata starring Metropolitan Opera stars Benita Valente and Louis Quilico.

Mariinsky Theatre

Firstly, he reorganized the company’s operations and established links with many of the world's great opera houses, including the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera, the Opéra Bastille, La Scala, La Fenice, the Tel Aviv Opera, the Washington National Opera and the San Francisco Opera.

Michael Chioldi

He made his San Francisco Opera debut as Dr. Falke in Die Fledermaus in 1996 and the following year appeared as Shaunard in La bohème and in the roles of Jack, Supervisor Kopp, and Stonewall Girl, in the West Coast premiere of Stewart Wallace's opera Harvey Milk, based on the life of the San Francisco politician and gay rights activist Harvey Milk, who was assassinated in 1978.

Mobile Opera

Artists such as Christine Weidinger, Michael Devlin, Susan Quittmeyer, Anthony Laciura, Barry McCauley, Stella Zambalis, Linda Zoghby, Amy Johnson, Philip Webb, Hal France and Sylvia McNair have made appearances with major opera companies such as the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, San Francisco Opera and opera houses and festivals of Europe.

Naděžda Kniplová

Other performance credits include appearances at the Liceu (Isolde), Teatro Regio di Torino (Brünnhilde in Götterdämmerung), the San Francisco Opera (Brünnhilde in Die Walküre), Vienna State Opera (Isolde, Kostelnička), Deutsche Oper am Rhein, the Palacio de Bellas Artes, the Grand Théâtre de Genève, and the Canadian Opera Company.

Pilar Lorengar

She went on to play Desdemona in Otello at the San Francisco Opera, Violetta in La traviata at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni at the Metropolitan Opera.

Ragazzi Boys Chorus

Since its founding, Ragazzi has performed regularly with the San Francisco Opera, San Francisco Symphony, Opera San Jose, West Bay Opera, Lawrence Pech Dance Company, Peninsula Symphony, Masterworks Chorale and the Stanford University Symphonic Chorus among others.

Richard M. Tobin

Tobin maintained homes in San Mateo and San Francisco, and was active in several San Francisco organizations as a board member, officer, and benefactor, including the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Opera, San Francisco Ballet, San Francisco Musical Association, and Catholic church.

San Francisco Ballet School

The San Francisco Ballet School was founded in 1933 as part of the San Francisco Operatic and Ballet School when Gaetano Merola, the founder of the San Francisco Opera, perceived a need for an institution where dancers could be trained to perform in opera productions.

Sonia Prina

Prina's extensive list of performance credits also include appearances at the Barbican Centre, the Bavarian State Opera, the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, La Fenice, the Liceu, Opera Australia, the Paris Opera, the Salzburg Festival, the San Francisco Opera, the Teatro Comunale Alighieri, the Teatro di San Carlo, the Teatro Real, and the Vienna State Opera among others.

Walter Slezak

In the 1970s, Slezak played the non-singing role of Frosch, the jailer, in the San Francisco Opera production of Johann Strauss' operetta Die Fledermaus.

Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts

She served on the board of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the de Young Museum, the San Francisco Symphony and the San Francisco Opera and was as much an ideological as financial supporter of these organizations.

William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

In 2006, the Hewlett Foundation provided $10 million to the San Francisco Opera Association and $5 million to the San Francisco Symphony.

Zheng Cao

She performed this role with opera companies such as San Francisco Opera, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Pittsburgh Opera, Vancouver Opera, Washington National Opera, San Diego Opera, and under the baton of Seiji Ozawa with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.


see also

Éva Marton

She has also portrayed Turandot in six television and video productions, including a Vienna State Opera production directed by Harold Prince, a Metropolitan Opera production created by Franco Zeffirelli production and a production designed by David Hockney filmed at the San Francisco Opera.

Kurt Herbert Adler

Other innovations included the Merola Opera Program named after the founder of the San Francisco Opera, and "Opera in the Park", which, from 1971, has been an annual free concert in Golden Gate Park on the Sunday following opening night of the fall season.

Nicola Luisotti

In the 2010-11 season, Luisotti led a new production of Attila by Gabriele Lavia at La Scala, a co-production with San Francisco Opera that was mounted there in 2012.

Nikki Einfeld

As a participant in the renowned Merola Opera Program, with the San Francisco Opera, Ms. Einfeld performed in The Medium by Gian-Carlo Menotti and Angelique by Jacques Ibert.

While an Adler Fellow with San Francisco Opera, she performed many roles including Mascha in The Queen of Spades by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Papagena in The Magic Flute, Serpina in La Serva Padrona by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, the title role in Rita by Gaetano Donizetti and Pauline in The Seagull.

Philip Skinner

In 2007, Skinner created the role of Edgar Ray Killen when San Francisco Opera staged the world premiere of the Philip Glass opera, Appomattox.