San Francisco Opera Announces Casting Update For Mozart's DON GIOVANNI in June

San Francisco Opera today announced a cast change for its new production of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Don Giovanni, opening June 4. Soprano Nicole Car will make her San Francisco Opera debut as Donna Elvira, replacing Carmen Giannattasio who has withdrawn from the production.

Giannattasio said: "I am incredibly sad to share that I will not be singing Donna Elvira in San Francisco Opera's new production of Don Giovanni. I had been postponing a necessary surgery in my abdomen for quite some time. Between my performance schedule and COVID delays at the hospital it was not possible to have this procedure until just weeks ago, and I am facing a more difficult recovery than expected. I had hoped to be completely recovered by the time I started rehearsals, but unfortunately, I am not healed properly and must return home for additional physiotherapy to be able to meet the physical demands of singing in a staged production. I want to thank the San Francisco Opera and my colleagues, as well as my family and friends for their support, especially during these last couple of months. I look forward to returning to the stage this summer to sing Tosca in Macerata, Italy."

San Francisco Opera's Tad and Dianne Taube General Director Matthew Shilvock said: "We are deeply saddened that Carmen is having to withdraw from the role of Donna Elvira this summer, but we wish her all good health as she continues her recovery. Carmen is a great friend of San Francisco Opera, having made such an incredible impact on our stage as Tosca in 2018, and both we and our audiences were so eager for her return this summer. We look forward to working with Carmen in the future. We are deeply grateful to Nicole Car for joining this new production, making her house debut a few weeks earlier than planned."

Nicole Car, who was already scheduled to make her first appearance with San Francisco Opera at the Eun Sun Kim Conducts Verdi concert on June 30, now makes her debut with the Company in the fully staged production of Don Giovanni. Car has performed the role of Donna Elvira on many leading stages, including in March 2022 at the Paris Opera under the baton of Bertrand de Billy, who also conducts San Francisco Opera's performances. In San Francisco, Car joins a cast headed baritone Etienne Dupuis, her husband and occasional onstage colleague, who is making his Company debut as the title role of Don Giovanni.

Car regularly performs on the stages of the Vienna State Opera, Paris Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Metropolitan Opera and Deutsche Oper Berlin. Opera News praised her 2017 appearance in Puccini's La Bohème at Covent Garden as "the evening's exceptional vocal performance" and said "Car's long-breathed, assured Mimì suggested a star in the making." The Australian soprano's repertory features leading operatic heroines, such as Mimì, Donna Elvira, Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, Elisabetta in Don Carlo, Tatyana in Eugene Onegin, Marguerite in Faust and Micaëla in Carmen. Her recordings include Andre Messager's Passionnèment for Palazzetto Bru Zane and two recital discs, Heroines and The Kiss, and Brahms' A German Requiem for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

The complete cast for Don Giovanni is baritone Etienne Dupuis as the title role, Luca Pisaroni as Leporello, Adela Zaharia as Donna Anna, Nicole Car as Donna Elvira, Christina Gansch as Zerlina, Amitai Pati as Don Ottavio, Cody Quattlebaum as Masetto and Soloman Howard as the Commendatore. Maestro Bertrand de Billy conducts the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, Chorus and soloists in Michael Cavanagh's new staging which brings the Company's multi-year Mozart-Da Ponte Trilogy to its conclusion.

The eight performances of Don Giovanni are scheduled for June 4 (7:30 pm), June 10 (7:30 pm), June 12 (2 pm), June 15 (7:30 pm), June 18 (7:30 pm), June 21 (7:30 pm), June 26 (2 pm); July 2 (7:30 pm), 2022. For tickets and more information, visit sfopera.com or call (415) 864-3330.

San Francisco Opera is sponsored, in part, by Jerome L. and Thao N. Dodson, The Dolby Family, Carol and Dixon Doll, Bertie Bialek Elliott, Peter Fenton and Kate Greer, Keith and Priscilla Geeslin, Gordon Getty, John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn, Burgess and Elizabeth Jamieson, Franklin and Catherine Johnson, Edmund W. and Jeannik Méquet Littlefield Fund, Steven M. Menzies, Bernard and Barbro Osher, Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem, Dianne and Tad Taube, Phyllis C. Wattis Endowment Funds, Diane B. Wilsey, and Barbara A. Wolfe.

Don Giovanni is made possible, in part, by John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn; Phyllis C. Wattis Fund for New Productions; Bernard and Barbro Osher; Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem; and Joan and David Traitel.

Yamaha is the official piano of San Francisco Opera.

San Francisco Opera would like to acknowledge the team of UCSF doctors who have provided guidance in planning the Company's safe return to the stage. Thank you to Drs. George Rutherford, Mark Almond, Robert Harrison, Sânziana Roman and Clark Rosen.

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