BroadwayWorld has a first look at San Francisco Opera's new production of Giacomo Puccini's Tosca, with a cast led by Italian soprano Carmen Giannattasio in her Company and role debuts as Tosca, tenor Brian Jagde as Cavaradossi and baritone Scott Hendricks as Baron Scarpia with conductor Leo Hussain leading the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and Chorus in his first performances with the Company. Puccini's monumental work, which has a distinguished history at San Francisco Opera, will be staged by American director Shawna Lucey with new sets and costumes designed by Robert Innes Hopkins and built entirely in San Francisco Opera's scenic and costume shops. Check out photos below!

Concluding its highly successful 61st season, the Merola Opera Program announces the establishment of an Advisory Council, comprised of leaders in  the field of opera performance, young artist training, arts administration, performing arts, and philanthropy.

San Francisco Opera unveils a new production of Giacomo Puccini's Tosca on Wednesday, October 3, with a cast led by Italian soprano Carmen Giannattasio in her Company and role debuts as Tosca, tenor Brian Jagde as Cavaradossi and baritone Scott Hendricks as Baron Scarpia with conductor Leo Hussain leading the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and Chorus in his first performances with the Company. Puccini's monumental work, which has a distinguished history at San Francisco Opera, will be staged by American director Shawna Lucey with new sets and costumes designed by Robert Innes Hopkins and built entirely in San Francisco Opera's scenic and costume shops.

On September 20, SF Opera Lab pops up at The Great Northern in San Francisco for 'Battle of the Divas,' an epic head-to-head vocal battle. The Queen of the Night will officiate this vocal showdown between two teams of dueling divas and divos, with the audience helping her decide who will be triumphant. 'Battle of the Divas' will be hosted by director and San Francisco Opera Adler Fellow Aria Umezawa and feature performances by Adler Fellows including sopranos Sarah Cambidge and Natalie Image, mezzo-soprano Ashley Dixon, countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen, tenor Amitai Pati and pianist John Elam, with surprise additional appearances from San Francisco Opera mainstage artists.

On September 20, SF Opera Lab pops up at The Great Northern in San Francisco for 'Battle of the Divas,' an epic head-to-head vocal battle. The Queen of the Night will officiate this vocal showdown between two teams of dueling divas and divos, with the audience helping her decide who will be triumphant. 'Battle of the Divas' will be hosted by director and San Francisco Opera Adler Fellow Aria Umezawa and feature performances by Adler Fellows including sopranos Sarah Cambidge and Natalie Image, mezzo-soprano Ashley Dixon, countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen, tenor Amitai Pati and pianist John Elam, with surprise additional appearances from San Francisco Opera mainstage artists.

San Francisco Opera opened its 2018–19 Season with a weekend of celebratory events and performances beginning Friday, September 7 with two galas—Opera Ball 2018: ¡Viva La Noche! and the BRAVO! CLUB Opening Night Gala—and a performance of the famous operatic double bill of Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana and Ruggero Leoncavallo'sPagliacci (or CavPag). Opening weekend continued Saturday, September 8 with the highly-anticipated premiere of Gaetano Donizetti's bel canto drama Roberto Devereux and on Sunday, September 9, nearly 15,000 people flocked to Golden Gate Park for the annual San Francisco Chronicle Presents Opera in the Park concert on a beautiful, 71-degree day with blue skies.

San Francisco Opera opened its 2018-19 Season with a weekend of celebratory events and performances beginning Friday, September 7 with two galas-Opera Ball 2018: ¡Viva La Noche! and the BRAVO! CLUB Opening Night Gala-and a performance of the famous operatic double bill of Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana and Ruggero Leoncavallo's Pagliacci (or Cav/Pag). Opening weekend continued Saturday, September 8 with the highly-anticipated premiere of Gaetano Donizetti's bel canto drama Roberto Devereux and on Sunday, September 9, nearly 15,000 people flocked to Golden Gate Park for the annual San Francisco Chronicle Presents Opera in the Park concert on a beautiful, 71-degree day with blue skies.

San Francisco Opera's 2018-19 Season opens Friday, September 7 with the double bill of Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana and Ruggero Leoncavallo's Pagliacci (or Cav/Pag), and opening night galas hosted by San Francisco Opera Guild and the BRAVO! CLUB. Italian conductor Daniele Callegari makes his Company debut leading an International cast in Jose Cura's production, staged in revival by fellow Argentine Jose Maria Condemi. Opening weekend festivities inaugurating the Company's 96th season continue Saturday, September 8, with Gaetano Donizetti's Roberto Devereux and on Sunday, September 9, with San Francisco Chronicle Presents Opera in the Park, the annual free concert in Golden Gate Park celebrating the new opera season.

To inaugurate San Francisco Opera's 96th season and the opening night double bill of Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana and Ruggero Leoncavallo's Pagliacci (or Cav/Pag), San Francisco Opera Guild presents Opera Ball 2018: ¡Viva La Noche! on Friday, September 7, 2018. Co-chaired by Shannon Cronan and Kathy Huber, this sold out gala benefit to raise funds for the Company's education and outreach programs features event design by J. Riccardo Benavides and dinner by McCalls Catering & Events. Debuting at this year's event, Chalk Hill Estate Vinyards and Winery is the official Opera Ball Wine Sponsor, joining Roederer Estate as the Sparkling Wine Sponsor and Neiman Marcus, the Dinner Sponsor. Honorary Chairs for Opera Ball 2018 are John A. & Cynthia Fry Gunn and Diane B. Wilsey.

San Francisco Opera celebrates the opening of its 96th Season with the annual San Francisco Chronicle Presents Opera in the Park on Sunday, September 9 at 1:30 p.m. The free concert in Golden Gate Park features vocal artists and conductors from the Company's fall season performing with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra in a program of arias, duets, popular songs and orchestral favorites. San Francisco Opera General Director Matthew Shilvock serves as master of ceremonies for the afternoon.

San Francisco Opera announces the winner of the 2018 Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Emerging Stars Competition. Brazilian tenor Atalla Ayan, who made his Company debut as Alfredo in Giuseppe Verdi's La Traviata last fall, was named “2018 Emerging Star of the Year” based on a popular vote conducted online at sfopera.com from July 9–July 31, 2018. As winner of the competition, now in its third year, Ayan receives a $10,000 cash prize.

San Francisco Opera announces updated casting for its 96th Season, which opens Friday, September 7, with the double bill of Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana and Ruggero Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, and two galas, Opera Ball 2018: ¡Viva La Noche! and the BRAVO! CLUB Opening Night Gala. The 2018-19 Season features eight productions that are new to the War Memorial Opera House stage, including a new staging of Giacomo Puccini's Tosca and the West Coast premiere of Jake Heggie's It's a Wonderful Life. Highlights also include Placido Domingo in Concert on October 21 and a roster of returning artists, debuting soloists and conductors.

Single (non-subscription) tickets are now on sale for San Francisco Opera's 96th Season. Tickets for each of the eight productions featured at the War Memorial Opera House during the 2018-19 Season may be purchased online at sfopera.com; in-person at the San Francisco Opera Box Office, located at 301 Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco; and by phone at (415) 864-3330 during Box Office hours. Full Series subscriptions of 6, 7 or 8 operas and Half Series packages of 3 or 4 operas are also available.

San Francisco's acclaimed Merola Opera Program, one of the most prestigious and selective opera training programs in the world, offers audiences a look at the opera stars of tomorrow with a lively, fully-staged production of The Rake's Progress. Based loosely on the eponymous eight paintings and engravings by William Hogarth (1733-1735), Stravinsky's dramatic opera follows the decline and fall of a profligate heir who makes a devil's bargain with Nick Shadow, abandoning life in the country and his tender fiancee for the wicked temptations of London.The Rake's Progress will be performed 7:30pm, Thursday, August 2 and 2:00pm, Saturday, August 4 at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. For tickets or more information, visit www.merola.org or call (415) 864-3330.

German soprano Evelyn Herlitzius, scheduled to make her San Francisco Opera debut as Brunnhilde in Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung), has withdrawn from the upcoming engagement due to health reasons. While San Francisco Opera regrets this casting change, the Company is honored to welcome in her stead the equally acclaimed Swedish soprano Irene Theorin as Brunnhilde, the pivotal heroine of Wagner's magnum opus. A celebrated Brunnhilde, Theorin's engagement will mark her first complete Ring in the United States with three cycles of the work at the War Memorial Opera House, June 12-July 1, 2018.

San Francisco Opera General Director Matthew Shilvock today announced plans for the 2018 19 Season. The Company's 96th Season will open Friday, September 7 with a gala double-bill performance of Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana and Ruggero Leoncavallo's Pagliacci in Jos Cura's production with an international cast featuring Lianna Haroutounian, Ekaterina Semenchuk, Roberto Aronica, Marco Berti and Dimitri Platanias, conducted by Daniele Callegari. To usher in the new opera season, San Francisco Opera Guild will produce its signature benefit event, Opera Ball 2018.

Immediately following the November 21 world premiere of his opera, Girls of the Golden West, composer John Adams was presented with the San Francisco Opera Medal by Company General Director Matthew Shilvock. With the opening night audience in attendance and surrounded onstage by members of the cast and creative team for his new work set during the tumultuous California Gold Rush, the internationally renowned composer, conductor and Berkeley resident received San Francisco Opera's most esteemed award.

On November 21, San Francisco Opera will present the world premiere of Girls of the Golden West, the newest opera by American composer John Adams. With a libretto drawn from historical sources by director Peter Sellars, Girls of the Golden West explores the true stories of pioneers on California's Gold Rush frontier during the 1850s.

San Francisco Opera will present Giacomo Puccini's Turandot at the War Memorial Opera House in six performances from November 18 through December 9. After opening the Company's 2017 Fall Season in September, the work returns in the colorful production by British-born artist David Hockney and with a cast headed by internationally renowned Swedish soprano Nina Stemme. Tenor Brian Jagde reprises the role of Calaf, soprano Leah Crocetto sings Li and bass Soloman Howard makes his Company and role debuts as Timur. In his first San Francisco Opera appearance, American conductor Christopher Franklin leads the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, Chorus and dancers.

San Francisco Opera presents six performances of Jules Massenet's Manon at the War Memorial Opera HouseNovember 4 22.

San Francisco Opera presents six performances of Jules Massenet's Manon at the War Memorial Opera House November 4 22. One of the composer's most enduring and sensuous works, Manon returns to the Company's repertory after a 19-year hiatus in a new production by French director Vincent Boussard, which is a co-production with Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre and the Israeli Opera.