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An excellent cast and smart, engaged direction make for an auspicious season launch in San Francisco Opera’s production of one of Verdi’s most sophisticated creations.  

John Fulljames directs a new production of Poul Ruders' uncompromising operatic take on Margaret Atwood’s celebrated novel. 

Great vocal performances from Amina Edris and Gerald Finley grace John Adams' new opera, which opens San Francisco Opera’s centennial season.

Both vocally and instrumentally the performance  was a high-class one

The evening’s most revelatory performance came from the young countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen as Medoro. 

A wonderfully realized production at San Francisco Opera of Jake Heggie's operatic version of a holiday classic. 

Tenor-turned-director José Cura transplants the action from southern Italy to Buenos Aires. 

The world is gloriously redeemed in the gripping final installment of San Francisco Opera's Ring cycle.

Both the technical effects and the singing impress in San Francisco Opera's dark Siegfried.

San Francisco Opera's Die Walküre overcame a disappointing first act, winning the audience over with excellent singing and playing and impressive stage effects.

At San Francisco Opera, conductor Donald Runnicles and a top-notch cast deliver a delicious Rheingold in Francesca Zambello's colorful production.

Despite a strong vocal and orchestral performance, David Hockney's sets are still the main draw for San Francisco Opera's Turandot. 

Adams and Peter Sellars demand that the audience take a cold, hard look at the Gold Rush and the founding history of California.

A thought-provoking production and killer cast make San Francisco Opera's Elektra top-notch music drama.

San Francisco Opera's Turandot is a feast for the eyes and ears, but the drama falls flat.

Dangling and turning like shards of a giant overhead chandelier in Don Giovanni’s banquet hall, this is an evocative multimedia production that tantalizes the senses while shining new light on Mozart's genius. 

If you love Verdi's inventive music, enjoy fabulous male voices in particular, and appreciate great opera conducting with exquisitely sensitive orchestral playing – then this Rigoletto is a must.

Antonacci's voice shines even in the art songs that pad out the evening, but it's Poulenc's one-act opera that gives San Francisco Opera Lab's current offering dramatic weight (and makes it worth seeing).

It's not really an opera (or even an oratorio), but Ted Hearne's The Source is important and engaging.

San Francisco Opera's Aida features exciting role debuts from Leah Crocetto and Brian Jagde and a visually striking production, but a lack of good direction keeps it from being great music drama.

Despite the black and white palate, this Makropulos Case has plenty of color. Nadja Michael heads the cast with her fiery portrayal of Elina Makropulos, and conductor Mikahil Tatrnikov makes a triumphant San Francisco Opera debut in the pit.

Four star singers shine in Pelly's glamorous production of Don Pasquale, which brings out both the lightness and the darkness of the opera.

A new operatic adaptation of Dream of the Red Chamber by Bright Sheng and David Henry Hwang offers musical and visual delights but stumbles on the text.

Andrea Chénier returns to San Francisco Opera after a long absence, in Sir David McVicar's realistic production. 

While updated from the 18th century, the Merola Opera Program’s version of Così maintained a gaiety and sly wit that depended on the singers’ beautiful and virtuosic voices for its success.

Witty, edgy and full of Freudian insight, Anne Sexton’s libretto updates the dark and bizarre world of the Brothers Grimm fairy tales. Conrad Susa’s music is equally droll and contemporary. 

Remarkable performances from Karita Mattila and Malin Byström head this strong production of Janáček’s Jenůfa at San Francisco Opera. 

A dream cast come true in Don Carlo at San Francisco Opera. Emilio Sagi's direction is the only weak link in this production.

Calixto Bieito’s production of Georges Bizet’s Carmen isn't without controversy. San Francisco Opera gave us raw sexuality unvarnished by any degree of social refinement.

Ana Sokolović’s Serbian a cappella opera is short on plot, but glorious musical variety, a talented cast, and an intimate space make for an engrossing hour.

Two American premières offer very different musical and dramatic takes on Poe's short story, and both prove gripping. 

This performance marked Sir Mark Elder’s debut with the company and, beginning with the overture, he offered his individual interpretation of the score. He had an enormous range of dynamics and his tempi varied widely with the emotional values of each scene.

Jun Kaneko's production of The Magic Flute at San Francisco Opera is a feast for the eyes, but both the stage direction and the translation need work.

San Francisco Opera's production of Sweeney Todd brings nothing new to the musical, but the cast includes wonderful surprises – most notably Stephanie Blythe's Mrs Lovett.

An exciting cast starring Michael Fabiano and Leah Crocetto makes up for a slow and static production at San Francisco Opera's opening night.

In Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, Figaro and his bride-to-(maybe)-be Susannah share their ups and downs, but in San Francisco Opera's revival production directed by Robin Guarino, it was evident they would be a veritable match made in heaven.

Marco Tutino's Two Women at San Francisco Opera feels lacking in musical originality and its out-of-date accompanying taste of re-heated Italian verismo comes a little over-cooked.

Staging the operatic behemoth that is Berlioz's Les Troyens comes with huge challenges to harness the artistic, technical and dramatic qualities in a work which spans more than four hours. 

Using Rossini’s music as the guidelines for his actor’s movements, Director Gregory Fortner has fashione a highly choreographed interpretation of the opera based on the classic production by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle. 

Director Christopher Alden's charming Partenope slinks its Surrealist way into San Francisco.

San Francisco Opera's thoughtful version of the 1955 opera Susannah, one of the most performed American operas, placing the story of Susannah and the Elders in the Appalachian hills of the 1930s. 

San Francisco Opera opens its 92nd season with Bellini's Norma starring Sondra Radvanovsky as Norma and Jamie Barton as Adalgisa.

The final production of the San Francisco Opera’s fall season was a new staging of Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, advertised everywhere as The Barber of Seville.

The greatest bass drum part ever written, the thundering Wrath of God, shook War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco Friday night in a thrilling performance of Verdi’s Requiem. Embracing the vivid extremes of Verdi’s great work, conductor Nicola Luisotti marshaled the wonderfully unruly forces of the largest ensemble ever assembled on the venue’s stage.

What happens when the director develops in directions the company neither wanted or expected? For San Francisco Opera’s new Der Fliegende Holländer, this discovery led to decisive action: director Petrika Ionesco was sacked just before the opening.

It may have taken Verdi’s bicentennial to bring Falstaff back to the San Francisco Opera, but at last the knight has returned to the company’s stage for the first time in over a decade...

Although opera, as a genre, is easily celebrated for its capacity to move and transport an audience, it is rare to be emotionally disturbed by one. Tobias Picker’s Dolores Claiborne, which received its world première by the San Francisco Opera this week, achieves such a feat. In doing so, it will certainly garner notoriety, both as well-deserved praise and well-deserved condemnation.

The 91st season of the San Francisco Opera opened with a revival of Arrigo Boito’s Mefistofele in Robert Carsen’s well-traveled production. The staging extends Shakespeare’s metaphor: if the whole world’s a stage, then heaven, quite naturally, must be an opera house.

The bits of conversation I overheard during intermission and in the aisles after the world première of Mark Adamo’s The Gospel of Mary Magdalene at San Francisco Opera were assorted variations of “so, what did you think?” World premières are, indeed, auspicious occasions that privilege first-nighters to experience the work before anyone else has molded or influenced their thoughts about it.

The return of Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann to the stage of San Francisco Opera on Wednesday night was a welcome and long overdue event.