Monday, June 6, 2022

San Francisco Opera Summer Season 2022 Opens with Two New Productions

Two new and stunning productions for June performances: Don Giovanni and Dream of the Red Chamber will be presented.

I am so excited. Summer opera in San Francisco is on again. San Francisco Opera, one of the greatest (and oldest) opera companies in the world, is presenting two new and dramatic and powerful operas. And this year SAN FRANCISCO OPERA will be starting celebrating its centennial. One hundred years.

I love the two summer productions—Mozart’s Don Giovanni, and the highly dramatic Dream of the Red Chamber, by a team of fantastic creators, based on a classic of Chinese literature.


Act II sextet with Christina Gansch (Zerlina), Adela Zaharia (Donna Anna), Nicole Car (Donna Elvira), Amitai Pati (Don Ottavio), Luca Pisaroni (Leporello - disguised as Don Giovanni), and Cody Quattlebaum (Masetto) in Mozart's "Don Giovanni."
Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera


Act I finale of Mozart's "Don Giovanni."
Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera



San Francisco Opera opens its 2022 Summer Season with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Don Giovanni from June 4–July 2 at the War Memorial Opera House.

Don Giovanni follows the titular Don, a nobleman whose womanizing and self-interest lead to a fiery retribution.

Witty, darkly humorous and filled with exuberant melodic invention, the opera reveals the 31-year-old Mozart at a creative peak.



Etienne Dupuis as Don Giovanni and Luca Pisaroni as Leporello in Mozart's "Don Giovanni."
Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera



Etienne Dupuis as Don Giovanni and Adela Zaharia as Donna Anna in Mozart's "Don Giovanni."
Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera



Luca Pisaroni as Leporello and Christina Gansch as Zerlina in Mozart's "Don Giovanni."
Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera



Etienne Dupuis as the title role in Mozart's "Don Giovanni."
Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera



Parisian conductor Bertrand de Billy conducts the 1788 version of the score, where Mozart added arias and made other changes for the work’s presentation in Vienna six months after its first performances in Prague.

In his first performances since joining the Company in January, San Francisco Opera’s Chorus Director John Keene prepares the Opera Chorus.



Luca Pisaroni as Leporello and Nicole Car as Donna Elvira in Mozart's "Don Giovanni."
Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera



Etienne Dupuis as the title role in Mozart's "Don Giovanni."
Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera


Nicole Car as Donna Elvira and Etienne Dupuis as the title role in Mozart's "Don Giovanni."
Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera




Etienne Dupuis as the title role in Mozart's "Don Giovanni."
Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera




Director Michael Cavanagh’s new production is the third and final chapter of San Francisco Opera’s multi-year Mozart-Da Ponte Trilogy, presenting all three operatic collaborations by Mozart and poet Lorenzo Da Ponte within the same American house setting at different points over a 300-year span. 



Bertrand de Billy (conductor) Photo: Marco Borggreve



INSIDER DETAILS FOR YOUR PLEASURE

Conductor Bertrand de Billy makes his Company debut leading an international cast headed by Etienne Dupuis as Don Giovanni, Adela Zaharia as Donna Anna, and Nicole Car as Donna Elvira, all in Company debuts, with Christina Gansch, Luca Pisaroni, Amitai Pati, Cody Quattlebaum and Soloman Howard.

The Mozart-Da Ponte Trilogy launched in 2019 with the popular and critically praised production of The Marriage of Figaro (Le Nozze di Figaro) set in America’s early postcolonial period when the American house setting and the nation itself were newly founded.

The narrative arc continued in November 2021 with Così fan tutte, in which Cavanagh’s “richly inventive touch” (San Francisco Chronicle) moved the action to the 1930s where the house has been converted into a country club and the characters find themselves at moral crossroads.


Christina Gansch as Zerlina and Cody Quattlebaum as Masetto in Mozart's "Don Giovanni."
Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera



Nicole Car as Donna Elvira and Etienne Dupuis as the title role in Mozart's "Don Giovanni."
Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera




Amitai Pati as Don Ottavio, Adela Zaharia as Donna Anna, and Soloman Howard as the Commendatore in Mozart's "Don Giovanni."
Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera





THE FINAL OPERA OF THIS SUPERB TRILOGY

The director and his creative team of set and projection designer Erhard Rom, costume designer Constance Hoffman and lighting designer Jane Cox conclude their vision for the trilogy with Don Giovanni, set 150 years after the previous installment in an uncertain future where the house and society are crumbling.

Cavanagh said: “When we charted the Great American House journey, we deliberately stretched our timeline to demonstrate the universality and timelessness of the common themes in these amazing works.”


War Memorial Opera House Exterior. Photo by Joel Puliatti.




TICKETS AND INFORMATION

Tickets for Don Giovanni are available at the San Francisco Opera Box Office, by phone at (415) 864-3330 and online at sfopera.com.

The San Francisco Opera Box Office window is located in the Opera House at 301 Van Ness Avenue.

San Francisco Opera requires all patrons aged 12 and older, who are eligible, to show proof of vaccination and booster shot/s along with a photo ID for admission to performances at the War Memorial Opera House.

All patrons must wear well-fitted masks that cover their nose, mouth and chin when inside the War Memorial Opera House unless they are actively eating or drinking.

For complete information about the Company’s health and safety protocols, visit sfopera.com/safetyfirst.

All casting, programs, schedules and ticket prices are subject to change.

For further information about San Francisco Opera’s 2021–22 Season, visit sfopera.com/onstage.



Luca Pisaroni as Leporello in Mozart's "Don Giovanni."
Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera


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