Photos: TRISTAN UND ISOLDE at San Francisco Opera

San Francisco Opera is presenting Richard Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde (Tristan and Isolde) from October 19–November 5 under the baton of Caroline H. Hume Music Director Eun Sun Kim who leads this monumental work for the first time. Check out production photos below!

Paul Curran makes his Company debut directing his production from Venice’s Teatro La Fenice which features renowned Wagnerian interpreters Simon O’Neill and Anja Kampe in the title roles.

Rooted in medieval legend, Tristan und Isolde is about a love that transcends all, even death itself. Though Wagner finished work on his score in 1859, the work was not performed until 1865 due to its musical complexity and titanic scale which led some to declare it unperformable. A keystone of the repertoire, Tristan und Isolde calls for the orchestra and vocal soloists to sustain the sensual yearnings expressed in the work to ecstatic extremes, from the enigmatic “Tristan Chord” in the opera’s first 15 seconds to Isolde’s climactic “Liebestod” (“Love Death”) more than four hours later.

Taking on Wagner’s score for the first time, Eun Sun Kim continues her initiative to conduct major operas by two of the art form’s most important forebears, Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner, each season. Earlier this year, Kim led Wagner’s final opera, Parsifal, with Houston Grand Opera. Her 2024–25 Season in San Francisco also includes Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera (onstage through September 27), a sold-out performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, honoring the work’s 200th anniversary, on October 26 and Mozart’s early masterpiece Idomeneo in June 2025.

Acclaimed Scottish director Paul Curran joins San Francisco Opera to direct his production of Tristan und Isolde which premiered in Venice in 2012. Robert Innes Hopkins, well known to San Francisco Opera audiences for his sets and costumes for recent stagings of Puccini’s Tosca, Verdi’s La Traviata, and last season’s L’Elisir d’Amore by Donizetti, is the production designer and David Martin Jacques, bowing with the Company for the first time, is the lighting designer. San Francisco Opera Chorus Director John Keene prepares the artists of the Opera Chorus.

Simon O’Neill returns as the titular knight, Tristan. The New Zealand native and former Merola Opera Program participant is today hailed as one of the world’s leading heldentenors, or tenors who regularly perform the heroic roles in Wagner’s operas which require extraordinary endurance, range and artistry.

German soprano Anja Kampe made her San Francisco Opera debut in 2011 as Sieglinde in Die Walküre in the Company’s co-production of Wagner’s Ring cycle by director Francesca Zambello. She returns this season as Isolde, one of the most prized roles in the soprano repertoire, which she has performed with the Vienna State Opera, Munich’s Bavarian State Opera, Berlin’s State Opera and at Buenos Aires’ Teatro Colón.

Korean bass Kwangchul Youn takes on the role of King Marke, the betrayed monarch. Youn first appeared with San Francisco Opera last summer as Sarastro in Mozart’s The Magic Flute under Maestro Kim’s leadership. A celebrated interpreter in the Wagnerian repertoire, Youn has performed in many seasons at the Festspielhaus, Wagner’s home theater in Bayreuth.

Annika Schlicht makes her U.S. opera debut as Brangäne, Isolde’s confidant whose mishandling of potions in Act I is a catalyst for Tristan and Isolde’s love affair. Schlicht recently performed Brangäne with Deutsche Oper Berlin, a company where she has performed in a variety of Wagner works including the Ring cycle (Fricka and Waltraute), Rienzi (Adriano) and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Magdalene). Bass-baritone Wolfgang Koch makes his San Francisco Opera debut as Tristan’s attendant, Kurwenal.

Tenor Christopher Oglesby sings the dual roles of a Sailor (Act I) and the Shepherd (Act III), and current San Francisco Opera Adler Fellows Thomas Kinch and Samuel Kidd are Melot and the Steersman, respectively.

Sung in German with English supertitles, the five performances of Tristan und Isolde are scheduled for October 19 (6 p.m.), 23 (6 p.m.), 27 (1 p.m.); November 1 (6 p.m.), 5 (6 p.m.), 2024.

The Sunday, October 27 matinee performance of Tristan und Isolde will be livestreamed at 1 p.m. PT. The opera will also be available to watch on demand for 48 hours beginning on Monday, October 28 at 10 a.m. PT. Tickets for the livestream and limited on-demand viewing are $27.50. For tickets and more information about livestreams, visit sfopera.com/digital.

Photo Credit: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera

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