San Francisco Opera Presents New Production of Richard Wagner's Parsifal, October 25–November 13
Music Director Eun Sun Kim conducts the composer’s final masterwork in new staging by director Matthew Ozawa with choreography by Rena Butler
Design for Parsifal; Eun Sun Kim (conductor); Matthew Ozawa (director); Rena Butler (choreographer)
International cast features Brandon Jovanovich, Brian Mulligan, Kwangchul Youn, Falk Struckmann and Company debut of Tanja Ariane Baumgartner
Brandon Jovanovich (Parsifal); Brian Mulligan (Amfortas); Kwangchul Youn (Gurnemanz);
Falk Struckmann (Klingsor); Tanja Ariane Baumgartner (Kundry)
Tickets available at (415) 864-3330 and sfopera.com
Sunday, November 2 performance will be livestreamed
parsifal new production.pdf Photos
SAN FRANCISCO, CA (September 26, 2025) — In one of the benchmark events of San Francisco Opera’s 103rd season, Caroline H. Hume Music Director Eun Sun Kim conducts Richard Wagner’s Parsifal from October 25–November 13. Wagner’s enigmatic final work returns to the War Memorial Opera House stage in a new production by director Matthew Ozawa. Company Chorus Director John Keene prepares the San Francisco Opera Chorus for Parsifal’s choral scenes featuring knights of the Holy Grail, seductive flower maidens and celestial voices.
Occupying Wagner for the last 25 years of his life, Parsifal premiered at the composer’s theater in Bayreuth, Germany, in 1882, six months before his death. The score marks the apex of the composer’s paradigm-shaping craft, with its variegated soundscape of textures, colors, melodic themes and suspended harmonies that intensify the emotional resonance of this story about finding enlightenment through compassion.
Parsifal marks the continuation of Eun Sun Kim’s exploration of Wagner’s works each season in San Francisco. Her Wagner journey began in 2023 with Lohengrin, the preparation for which was captured in the NorCal Emmy-nominated documentary Eun Sun Kim: A Journey Into Lohengrin. Last season, she conducted her first performances of Tristan und Isolde of which the San Francisco Chronicle said, “Kim commands every page of this daunting and harmonically unsettled score, from the hushed opening of the prelude through to Isolde’s concluding aria nearly five hours later.”
Designs for Parsifal by Yuki Nakase Link (l), Jessica Jahn (c), Robert Innes Hopkins (r)
Director Matthew Ozawa said: “At a time when the world seems increasingly fractured, I believe Parsifal speaks directly to the crisis of disconnection so many of us feel. Its music and message reach into something primal—a longing for healing and meaning. As we participate together in this shared theatrical ritual, may we be reminded of the possibility of transformation—through empathy, through compassion and through art.”
The creative team for Ozawa’s vision of Parsifal includes three collaborators from his critically acclaimed 2022 production of Gluck’s Orpheus and Eurydice for San Francisco Opera: costume designer Jessica Jahn, lighting designer Yuki Nakase Link and choreographer Rena Butler. Robert Innes Hopkins, who designed the Company’s productions of Tosca (2017, 2021), La Traviata (2022), The Elixir of Love (2023) and Tristan und Isolde (2024), is the set designer.
The international cast is headed by American tenor Brandon Jovanovich as Parsifal, the naïve youth who stumbles upon the knights of the Holy Grail and begins a hero’s journey of enlightenment. Among the world’s leading interpreters of Wagner’s heldentenor roles, Jovanovich made his role debuts as Froh in Das Rheingold, Siegmund in Die Walküre, the title role of Lohengrin and Walther in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg with San Francisco Opera.
German mezzo-soprano Tanja Ariane Baumgartner makes her Company debut as the mysterious Kundry. A frequent star with the Vienna State Opera, Baumgartner made headlines when she replaced an injured colleague as Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde at the 2024 Glyndebourne Festival. Opera reported: “Baumgartner gave an object lesson in projection of the words and, an experienced Wagnerian, sang in exemplary style.”
South Korean bass Kwangchul Youn returns to the Company as the wise, elder knight, Gurnemanz, a role for which he is renowned and has performed around the world, including in Houston under Kim’s baton. Youn is scheduled to eclipse his 100th performance of the role while in San Francisco. Baritone Brian Mulligan portrays Amfortas, the Grail King who suffers from a wound that can only be healed through redemption. Mulligan has portrayed a variety of roles in his distinguished association with San Francisco Opera, including his recent role debut as Telramund in Lohengrin. Celebrated Wagnerian Falk Struckmann, who made his Company debut as Alberich in Wagner’s Ring cycle in 2018, portrays the sorcerer, Klingsor.
Knights of the Grail, Esquires and Flower Maidens are performed by Samuel White (First Knight), Jongwon Han (Second Knight), Elisa Sunshine (First Esquire/First Flower Maiden), Laura Krumm (Second Esquire/Third Flower Maiden), Christopher Oglesby (Third Esquire), Thomas Kinch (Fourth Esquire), Georgiana Adams (Second Flower Maiden), Jana McIntyre (Fourth Flower Maiden), Olivia Smith (Fifth Flower Maiden) and Caroline Corrales (Sixth Flower Maiden). Bass David Soar is Titurel, the former Grail King, and mezzo-soprano Nikola Printz is the Voice. Dancer Charmaine Butcher portrays Parsifal’s Mother.
In 1950 Parsifal was among the last of Wagner’s mature operas to enter the repertoire of San Francisco Opera (followed only by Der Fliegende Holländer in 1954). The Company’s presentations of Parsifal have featured many of the leading interpreters, including Jess Thomas and René Kollo as Parsifal; Kirsten Flagstad, Astrid Varnay and Waltraud Meier as Kundry; and bass Kurt Moll who made his American debut with San Francisco Opera as Gurnemanz in 1974 and reprised the role in 1988 and 2000. Conductors of the work in San Francisco include Jonel Perlea, Erich Leinsdorf, Georges Prêtre, Otmar Suitner and former Company music directors John Pritchard and Donald Runnicles.
Performed in German with English supertitles, the five performances of Parsifal are scheduled for October 25 (1 p.m.), 28 (6 p.m.); November 2 (1 p.m.), 7 (6 p.m.), 13 (6 p.m.), 2025.
LIVESTREAM: PARSIFAL, Sunday, November 2
The Sunday, November 2 matinee of Parsifal will be livestreamed at 1 p.m. PT. The opera will also be available to watch on demand for 48 hours, beginning on Monday, November 3 at 10 a.m. PT. Tickets for the livestream and limited on-demand viewing are $25. For tickets and more information about livestreams, visit sfopera.com/digital.
POST-PERFORMANCE TALKBACK WITH EUN SUN KIM: Sunday, November 2
Following the Sunday, November 2 matinee of Parsifal, Music Director Eun Sun Kim, who conducts the performance, will host a post-performance talkback in the theater. Ticketholders are invited to gather after the performance for a discussion about Wagner’s epic meditation on compassion and the work that goes into presenting it in the pit, on the stage and behind the scenes.
PRE-OPERA TALKS
Conductor and music historian Peter Susskind presents a 20-minute overview of Parsifal beginning 55 minutes prior to each performance for ticketholders. An audio recording of the talk will be made available at sfopera.com/parsifal.
ANCILLARY EVENTS
WAGNER SOCIETY OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA LECTURES ABOUT PARSIFAL
“The Redeemer Reborn, Parsifal as the Fifth Opera of Wagner’s Ring” with Paul Schofield
Saturday, October 18, 1–2:30 p.m.
Virtual meeting on Zoom
The Wagner Society’s presentations for members about the works of Wagner continue with writer, musician and former Zen Buddhist monk Paul Schofield discussing Parsifal. For information about becoming a member, visit wagnersf.org/join-renew.
“Outside/Inside: Sacred Spaces in Parsifal” with Professor Thomas Grey
Saturday, November 1, 1–2:30 p.m.
Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, 3200 California Street, San Francisco
Stanford University’s Professor Emeritus of Musicology Thomas Grey addresses Wagner’s ideas about sacred spaces in Parsifal. For information about becoming a member, visit wagnersf.org/join-renew.
*For the complete press release, including full cast and calendar, open the PDF version above.