100 Years San Francisco Opera Celebrates the first One Hundred Years with a Festive Opening Night Celebration

OPERA BALL: THE CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION By Heide VanDoren Betz

The Centennial Celebration and Concert opened the 101st Season season with Music Director Eun Sun Kim leading the San Francisco Opera Orchestra with soloists soprano Nadine Sierra, tenors Michael Fabiano and Pene Pati and baritone Lucas Meachem for a 2 hour concert featuring orchestral works, arias, and duets from key operas in San Francisco Opera history; music from Broadway; a new work by composer Texu Kim, a surprise traditional Maori dance /Haka by Pene Pati which drew rave applause .

The festive Opera Ball , a Reception, Dinner and After Party for 900 guests, was expertly co- chaired by Jack Calhoun and Maryam Muduroglu was held at City Hall designed by Blueprint Studios.

The Gala was inspired by the founding of San Francisco Opera and the ‘roaring twenties . Blueprint Studios created a festive and immersive environment for reception and dinner attendees retrofitted with a timeless palette of Indigo, Goldenrod, and Onyx. A mix of sensuous periodic textiles such as velvet, leather, crystal, mirror, and ostrich plumes were mixed throughout each space. An array of seating arrangements, each with stunning floral arrangements and a design variant to a different era, was set within distinct vignettes throughout City Hall. Following the concert performance, After-Party City Hall, was transformed with imagery and music celebrating the present – with a focus on the future. Bold, festive yet worldly digital imagery artfully danced along the Rotunda walls and ceiling.

Opera Ball catering by McCall’s Catering & Events , overseen by the brilliant Lucas Shoemaker. The dinner menu featured a first course of Peppercorn Crusted Smoked Salmon, followed by Grilled Filet of Beef & Wild Prawns, and Chocolate Gianduja for dessert.

A major thank you to Opening Weekend Grand sponsor : Dede Wilsey and the many donors and attendees who made this evening a smashing success and allowed the opera to raise substantial funds for education.

THE CENTENNIAL SEASON OPERAS

On September 26, 1923, Gaetano Merola inaugurated his new resident company for the opera-loving metropolis of San Francisco with a performance of Puccini’s La Bohème at the Civic Auditorium. A century later, San Francisco Opera remains a vital and dynamic artistic institution. Its culture of innovation has led to pioneering uses of technology and repertory-expanding new works by leading composers.

San Francisco Opera’s 100th season is anchored by premieres of new works from two important Bay Area composers: the world premiere of Antony and Cleopatra by John Adams, which was commissioned for the Company’s centenary, and the local premiere of Gabriela Lena Frank’s El último sueño de Frida y Diego, a San Francisco Opera co-commission with San Diego Opera. Antony and Cleopatra opened on September 10, directed by Elkhanah Pulitzer and featured a cast headed by Gerald Finley and Amina Edris under the baton of Eun Sun Kim. El último sueño de Frida y Diego, opening in June 2023, stars Daniela Mackand Alfredo Daza as the iconic artists in a staging directed by Lorena Maza in her Company debut.

New San Francisco Opera productions include director Shawna Lucey’s staging of Verdi’s La Traviata starring soprano Pretty Yende in her Company debut; Gluck’s Orpheus and Eurydice in a new production by Matthew Ozawa featuring countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński as Orfeo and a new interpretation of Puccini’s Madame Butterfly by director Amon Miyamoto starring soprano Karah Son and tenor Michael Fabiano.

Two towering operatic masterpieces of the twentieth century return to San Francisco Opera where each had its American premiere during the 1950s: Francis Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites and Richard Strauss’ momentous Die Frau ohne Schatten .Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin will be presented in the Bay Area premiere of Robert Carsen’s acclaimed production. Centennial celebrations reach another pinnacle on June 16, 2023 with the 100th Anniversary Concert, a festive event that looks back at the Company’s first century and on toward the future.

In addition, San Francisco Opera has announced a new partnership with the Dolby Family to offer Opera for the Bay, a reduced-price ticket program for Bay Area residents throughout the Centennial Season. In collaboration with the San Francisco Giants, Opera at the Ballpark makes its return on November 11 with a free simulcast of Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata to the videoboard at Oracle Park. On October 23, the Company will open its doors for Community Open House, a day of fun and exploration as families, music fans and the opera-curious witness the magic of opera from behind the scenes. The Traviata Encounter (November 19) will offer the first act of Verdi’s opera and an immersive after-party inspired by the decadence of Belle Epoque Paris. The very first opera to be presented by San Francisco Opera 100 years ago, Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème, will be delivered to several Bay Area communities in a converted shipping container with Bohème Out of the Box in 2023.

The Company also will invite everyone to develop and share their own stories through The Opera in You writing program. In a series of digital releases, Streaming the First Century invites people from around the world to explore landmark San Francisco Opera performances with a cohort of expert guides.

There’s more around the Bay Area- public exhibitions will relate the story of San Francisco Opera’s first century through a variety of lenses, from an exhibition of rare costumes and artifacts at the SFO Museum at San Francisco International Airport to explorations of the Company’s roots in the Italian community at the Museo Italo Americano and the City’s longstanding support for the Opera at the San Francisco Public Library.