San Francisco Opera's 2025–26 opens September 5
Opening weekend features annual Opera Ball with Music Director Eun Sun Kim conducting Verdi’s Rigoletto and Free 50th-anniversary Opera in the Park concert
103rd season highlighted by world premiere of The Monkey King (猴王悟空) by Huang Ruo and David Henry Hwang; Eun Sun Kim leading Wagner’s Parsifal in a new production
Fall Season to include 25th-anniversary presentation of Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally’s Dead Man Walking and the San Francisco Opera Orchestra in concert
2026 Summer Season features Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia with two casts, Strauss’ Elektra and a Pride Concert
Subscriptions and single tickets available at (415) 864-3330 and sfopera.com
SAN FRANCISCO, CA (July 10, 2025) — San Francisco Opera’s 2025–26 season, the tenth under the leadership of Tad and Dianne Taube General Director Matthew Shilvock, kicks off Friday, September 5 with the annual Opera Ball, co-presented with San Francisco Opera Guild, and Caroline H. Hume Music Director Eun Sun Kim conducting Giuseppe Verdi’s RIGOLETTO. The opening weekend celebrations continue on Sunday, September 7 when Kim takes the podium at Golden Gate Park with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and stars from the fall season for the popular Opera in the Park concert, now in its 50th year.
Keystones of the Company’s 103rd season are the world premiere of THE MONKEY KING (猴王悟空) by composer Huang Ruo and librettist David Henry Hwang, and a new production of Richard Wagner’s final masterpiece, PARSIFAL.
THE MONKEY KING (November 14–30) centers around the mythic action hero whose popularity has exploded through film, television, animation and, most recently, the 2024 blockbuster video game Black Myth: Wukong. Commissioned by San Francisco Opera in partnership with the Chinese Heritage Foundation of Minnesota, The Monkey King is performed in English and Chinese and based on the opening chapters of Journey to the West, a novel from the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) widely considered one of China’s greatest literary classics. The Monkey King’s high-octane adventures—from the depths of the sea to his epic battle with the gods in heaven—are balanced by moments of repose with the goddess Guanyin and a chorus of bodhisattvas reflecting on monkey’s progress in Buddhist sutras (hear Guanyin’s aria “All dharmas are equal” HERE). Award-winning American Repertory Theater Artistic Director Diane Paulus and San Francisco native and acclaimed designer and puppeteer Basil Twist conjure the fantastical world of this beloved trickster with costumes designed by Anita Yavich. Tenor Kang Wang makes his Company debut as the Monkey King with soprano Mei Gui Zhang as Guanyin and Jusung Gabriel Park joins San Francisco Opera as Subhuti.
Eun Sun Kim’s journey through the works of Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner continues in Fall 2025. Verdi’s RIGOLETTO (September 5–27) opens the season with a cast headed by acclaimed baritone Amartuvshin Enkhbat in the title role, Adela Zaharia as Gilda and Yongzhao Yu making his house debut as the Duke of Mantua. Wagner’s PARSIFAL (October 25–November 13) returns to the War Memorial Opera House stage for the first time in 25 seasons in a new production by director Matthew Ozawa with Brandon Jovanovich in the title role, Tanja Ariane Baumgartner joining the Company as Kundry, Brian Mulligan as Amfortas and Kwangchul Youn as Gurnemanz. On November 1, Kim leads the San Francisco Opera Orchestra in a one-night-only concert featuring Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and the music of Manuel de Falla with mezzo-soprano soloist Daniela Mack.
Kim’s ongoing collaboration with the Company is the subject of the 2024 NorCal Emmy-nominated film Eun Sun Kim: A Journey Into Lohengrin by Lumahai Productions and San Francisco Opera.
San Francisco Opera commemorates its legacy of commissioning and presenting new operas with a 25th-anniversary presentation of Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally’s DEAD MAN WALKING (September 14–28) starring Jamie Barton as Sister Helen Prejean, Ryan McKinny as Joseph De Rocher and Susan Graham, the original Sister Helen at the San Francisco world premiere, as the convict’s mother, Mrs. Patrick De Rocher. Commissioned by San Francisco Opera and premiered in October 2000, Dead Man Walking is the most widely performed new opera of the last 25 years with more than 80 productions around the globe.
San Francisco Opera’s 2026 Summer Season presents Gioachino Rossini’s immortal comedy THE BARBER OF SEVILLE (IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA) (May 28–June 21) with two brilliant casts and Eun Sun Kim leads Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s ELEKTRA (June 7–27), a staggering work requiring one of the largest pit orchestras in the repertoire and powerful singing artists. Elena Pankratova makes her San Francisco Opera debut as Elektra with Michaela Schuster as Klytämnestra, Elza van den Heever as Chrysothemis, Kyle Ketelsen as Orest and William Burden as Aegisth. On Wednesday, June 17, the Company’s popular half-opera, half-party Encounter series returns with The Barber of Seville Encounter. On Friday, June 26 San Francisco Opera celebrates LGBTQIA+ community and artistry with a Pride Concert.
Chorus Director John Keene prepares the artists of the San Francisco Opera Chorus for the operas of the 2025–26 Season and leads them in a concert at the Dianne and Tad Taube Atrium Theater on November 23. The 2025 Adler Fellows, resident artists of San Francisco Opera, take the stage for their annual showcase with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra on November 21 at Herbst Theatre.
OPENING WEEKEND (September 5–7)
The Company’s new season opens Friday, September 5 with Opera Ball, the annual benefit co-presented by San Francisco Opera and San Francisco Opera Guild. The celebratory evening of music, community and philanthropy begins with a cocktail reception and dinner at City Hall followed by Verdi’s Rigoletto, conducted by Eun Sun Kim, at the Opera House. Dancing and late-night bites await back at City Hall after the opera. The event is made possible, in part, by Opening Weekend Grand Sponsor Diane B. Wilsey and is co-chaired by Jennifer Bienaimé and Isabel Rhee. Proceeds benefit a wide range of San Francisco Opera artistic initiatives and San Francisco Opera Guild’s education programs which reach thousands of students in K-12 classrooms and afterschool programs. For more information, visit sfopera.com/operaball.
The young professionals and opera lovers of BRAVO CLUB! kick off the new season with the BRAVO! Ball. Visit sfopera.com/bravo for more information.
Opening weekend concludes on Sunday, September 7 with the Company’s 50th anniversary presentation of Opera in the Park. This popular and free annual event, which began in 1971, will showcase Eun Sun Kim, the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and stars of the Company’s fall season in a celebratory program at Robin Williams Meadow in Golden Gate Park.
*For the complete press release, including full calendar and casting, open the PDF version above.