Wagner's LOHENGRIN Comes to San Francisco Opera in October

San Francisco Opera presents Richard Wagner's Lohengrin from October 15–November 1 in director David Alden's staging, a co-production of London's Royal Opera, Covent Garden and Antwerp's Opera Vlaanderen. Caroline H. Hume Music Director Eun Sun Kim conducts the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and a cast featuring tenor Simon O'Neill, soprano Julie Adams, baritone Brian Mulligan, bass Kristinn Sigmundsson, and, in her American opera debut, mezzo-soprano Judit Kutasi. Wagner's riveting music in Lohengrin for the chorus is performed by the San Francisco Opera Chorus under the leadership of Chorus Director John Keene.

Wagner's Lohengrin transforms historical events from the tenth century into a mythic romance exploring the limitations of faith and love. At the center is Elsa, the princess of Brabant, who stands wrongly accused of a heinous crime. Her savior, a mysterious knight who arrives to defend her, will marry Elsa provided she never ask his name or where he comes from. Lohengrin, which had its premiere in Weimar in 1850, was one of the composer's earliest triumphs and features a monumental score with an expansive, ethereal soundscape.

With this pivotal work of the operatic canon, Eun Sun Kim fully implements her new initiative to lead works by Wagner and Giuseppe Verdi each season. Earlier this season she was on the podium for a revival of Verdi's Il Trovatore. For the foreseeable future, Kim will conduct at least one opera by both composers each season.

Director David Alden's vision updates the work's setting from medieval Germany to a mid-twentieth-century European state at war. The Guardian called the production "prescient in light of current events in Europe; the opera's setting in a divided society threatened by war from the east has shed its historical trappings and instead become unexpectedly contemporary." This staging, new to San Francisco Opera, features the creative work of set designer Paul Steinberg, costume designer Gideon Davey, original lighting designer Adam Silverman which will be relit in San Francisco by Simon Bennison, projection designer Tal Rosner and choreographer Maxine Braham.

Simon O’Neill stars as the mysterious knight, Lohengrin. Known for his performances of Wagnerian heroes such as Lohengrin, Siegmund, Siegfried, Tristan and Parsifal, O'Neill was hailed by the Houston Chronicle: "O'Neill's golden tenor, with its easeful command and sweetness of tone, projects Lohengrin's superhuman nobility." The New Zealand-born heldentenor, who began his operatic career in San Francisco as a participant in the Merola Opera Program (2002), made his San Francisco Opera debut in 2012 as Mao Tse-Tung in the Company premiere of John Adams' Nixon in China.

American soprano Julie Adams returns to San Francisco Opera to make her role debut as Elsa. The former San Francisco Opera Adler Fellow (2015, 2016) has earned acclaim for a variety of roles such as Mimì in Puccini's La Bohème and German and Slavic heroines, including Freia and Gerhilde in San Francisco Opera's 2018 performances of Wagner's Ring cycle. More recently, Adams has taken on the title role of Dvořák's Rusalka for Staatstheater Braunschweig and was praised as "vocally brilliant, sensitive and expressive" (Die Deutsche Bühne) as Elisabeth in Wagner's Tannhäuser at Wuppertal Opera.

The union of Elsa and Lohengrin is opposed by the scheming Ortrud, who is performed by Romanian-Hungarian mezzo-soprano Judit Kutasi in her American debut. Kutasi has won acclaim in a variety of roles including her "immaculately and impressively sung" (Opera) Laura in Ponchielli's La Gioconda at Toulouse's Théâtre du Capitole. American baritone Brian Mulligan makes his role debut as Ortrud's husband, Telramund. A frequent collaborator with San Francisco Opera since his Company debut in 2008, Mulligan has earned recent praise for his "unusually vivid intensity" (New York Times) as the Herald in Lohengrin for the Metropolitan Opera and for his "extraordinarily probing performance" (San Francisco Chronicle) in an excerpt from John Adams' Doctor Atomic at San Francisco Opera's 100th Anniversary Concert last summer.

Icelandic bass Kristinn Sigmundsson, who was the Water Gnome in Dvořák’s Rusalka at San Francisco Opera under Kim’s baton in 2019, returns as King Heinrich. Baritone Thomas Lehman bows for the first time with San Francisco Opera as the Herald.

Lohengrin entered San Francisco Opera's performance history in 1931 as the third Wagner opera to be performed by the Company after Tristan und Isolde (1927) and Tannhäuser (1930). The titular knight has been performed on the War Memorial Opera House stage by such leading tenors as Lauritz Melchior, Set Svanholm, Sandor Konya, Ben Heppner and Brandon Jovanovich, the latter in an acclaimed role debut in 2012. Conductors who have led the work for San Francisco Opera include Fritz Reiner, William Steinberg, Charles Mackerras, former Chorus Director Ian Robertson and former Music Directors Donald Runnicles and Nicola Luisotti.

Sung in German with English supertitles, the six performances of Lohengrin are scheduled for October 15 (2 p.m.), 18 (7 p.m.), 21 (7 p.m.), 24 (7 p.m.), 27 (7 p.m.); November 1 (7 p.m.), 2023.

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