Opera Parallele Announces 2024-25 Season

Opera Parallèle has announced its 2024-25 season, featuring a bold and innovative repertoire that pushes the boundaries of contemporary opera. Marking its 15th anniversary, the company is set to captivate audiences with a trio of groundbreaking productions.

The season will be distinguished by the World Premiere of The Pigeon Keeper, an opera co-commissioned by Opera Parallèle from composer David Hanlon and librettist Stephanie Fleischmann; the West Coast debut of a completely reimagined production of Harvey Milk, celebrating the legendary activist on what would have been his 95th birthday; and building on the company's highly successful transformation of the opera Everest as a graphic novel film, the work will be presented in yet another entirely unique format, Everest: Opera in the Planetarium, offering a visually and sonically immersive experience like no other.

Everest: Opera in the Planetarium

Nov. 6-17, 2024

Morrison Planetarium, California Academy of Sciences

Everest, the internationally renowned opera composed by Joby Talbot with a libretto by Gene Scheer, will be presented in a bold new iteration, Everest: Opera in the Planetarium. Based on the true story of a 1996 ill-fated expedition to summit Mount Everest, this evocative production scaffolds a breathtaking experience using intricate graphic novel imagery and a soaring sound world. As part of a new partnership with the Academy, audiences will climb to new heights in the immersive 360-degree environment of the Morrison Planetarium, one of the largest and most advanced all-digital domes in the world. Opera Parallèle will guide the audience on an operatic adventure fusing vivid imagery with the visceral power of a pre-recorded cast of renowned singers and gripping orchestration, in a multi-dimensional dome environment for a truly unique experience.

Everest: Opera in the Planetarium will be presented November 6-17, 2024, Morrison Planetarium at the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park with multiple screening dates and times to be announced. Tickets will go on sale beginning August 1.

World Premiere of

The Pigeon Keeper

March 7-9, 2025

Cowell Theater, Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture

Opera Parallèle will present the world premiere of The Pigeon Keeper, composed by David Hanlon with a libretto by Stephanie Fleischmann. This new work promises to enthrall with its compelling narrative and stunning musical composition. Staged in ten scenes, the poignant story is set in a seaside village, where young Orsia discovers an unspeaking refugee boy. Determined to find him a home, she encounters the Pigeon Keeper, an outsider. In opening his heart to the refugee boy, the Pigeon Keeper frees the child's voice and a family's sorrow becomes healed. This magical new work explores themes of otherness, belonging, connection, and home.

While full details regarding casting and creative team will be announced in September, this new opera will include the participation of frequent Opera Parallèle partner, the multi award-winning San Francisco Girls Chorus led by Artistic Director Valérie Sainte-Agathe. Three performances are scheduled March 7-9, 2025 at the Cowell Theater, Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture. Tickets will go on sale by mid-September.

The Pigeon Keeper is a co-commission of Santa Fe Opera's Opera for All Voices Initiative, Opera Parallèle, Opera Omaha, and Opera on the Avalon. Opera Parallèle's production will also be co-produced with Opera Omaha and Opera on the Avalon.

West Coast Debut of Reimagined

Harvey Milk

May 31-June 7, 2025

Blue Shield of California Theater, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

In a fitting tribute to gay rights icon and activist Harvey Milk, Opera Parallèle will produce a completely new and eagerly anticipated production of Harvey Milk by composer Stewart Wallace and librettist Michael Korie. Newly revised into two acts instead of three, with new music and a tighter cast from its sprawling original Houston Grand Opera premiere in 1995 and San Francisco Opera debut in 1996, this reimagined version of Harvey Milk was originally intended for an earlier Opera Parallèle season, but was delayed by the pandemic and subsequently presented in St. Louis in 2022.

Interviewed by The New York Times about the new version, composer Stewart Wallace said, “...if we wanted to do it, we should go to Opera Parallèle. We now have what we originally hoped for, which is a kind of mythic interpretation of his life and his evolution into an activist.” For Nicole Paiement, Opera Parallèle General & Artistic Director, “The basis of our collaboration with Stewart and Michael was to take a new look at Harvey Milk, to rework it into a new and tighter version with a much more dramatic arch. This fresh perspective on the opera is sure to resonate deeply with audiences, honoring Milk's courageous work in a powerful new way.”

The formidable and tragic opera celebrates Harvey Milk's enduring legacy and contributions to the nascent LGBTQ+ movement, his early life in New York and relocation to San Francisco, later becoming the first openly gay man in 1978 to be elected to public office in California. Milk served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors for 11 months before being assassinated, along with then-Mayor George Moscone, at San Francisco City Hall.

Opera Parallèle will present Harvey Milk May 31 to June 7, 2025 at the Blue Shield of California Theater, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, coinciding with what would have been Milk's 95th birthday and marking the start of Pride Month, June 2025. Casting and creative team details along with the on-sale of tickets will be announced by mid-September.

Opera Parallèle is a San Francisco-based professional opera company that develops and performs contemporary operas. Since its founding by award winning conductor and General & Artistic Director Nicole Paiement and creative/stage director Brian Staufenbiel, Opera Parallèle has been dedicated to expanding the operatic repertoire and engaging diverse audiences through innovative and compelling productions.

Highlights of past mainstage productions include the Philip Glass/Jean Cocteau trilogy of Orphée, Les Enfants Terribles and La Belle et la Bête; Terrence Blanchard's Champion; Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking; Osvaldo Golijov's Ainadamar, Fountain of Tears; Tarik O' Regan's Heart of Darkness; the recent double bill of David T. Little's Vinkensport, or The Finch Opera and Laura Karpman's Balls; and the West Coast premiere of Fellow Travelers by Gregory Spears and Greg Pierce. In 2023, San Francisco Classical Voice readers voted Opera Parallèle as “Best New Music Ensemble.”

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