Amitai Pati News

San Francisco Opera presents the West Coast premiere of It's a Wonderful Life by composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer in nine holiday-season performances from November 17 through December 9. The two-act work, a co-commission and co-production between San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera and the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, is based in part on Frank Capra's 1946 film It's a Wonderful Life and The Greatest Gift, a story by Philip Van Doren Stern.

San Francisco Opera Center presents the 2018 class of Adler Fellows in their final concert of the year, The Future Is Now: Adler Fellows Concert, on Saturday, December 8 at 7:30 p.m. in Herbst Theatre. Christopher Franklin conducts the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and eight Adler Fellow singers in opera scenes, arias and duets with stage direction by Adler Fellow director Aria Umezawa and musical preparation by Adler Fellow apprentice coaches John Elam and César Cañón.

San Francisco Opera Center Director Sheri Greenawald today announced the 12 recipients of the 2019 Adler Fellowship. Selected from participants of the Merola Opera Program, the ten singers and two pianist/apprentice coaches begin their fellowships in January 2019. The multi-year performance-oriented residency offers advanced young artists intensive individual training, coaching and professional seminars, as well as a wide range of performance opportunities. Since its inception in 1977, the prestigious fellowship has nurtured the development of more than 180 young artists, introducing many budding stars to the international opera stage and launching active careers throughout the world as performers, production artists, arts professionals and educators.

San Francisco Opera presents the West Coast premiere of It's a Wonderful Life by composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer in nine holiday-season performances from November 17 through December 9. The two-act work, a co-commission and co-production between San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera and the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, is based in part on Frank Capra's 1946 film It's a Wonderful Life and The Greatest Gift, a story by Philip Van Doren Stern.

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 today announced a cast change for Gaetano Donizetti's Roberto Devereux, opening September 8 and running for six performances through September 27. Romanian-American baritone Andrew G. Manea will perform the role of the Duke of Nottingham, replacing Artur Rucinski who has withdrawn due to lung injuries sustained in a serious bicycling accident involving a car in his native Poland. He is expected to make a full recovery. Rucinski deeply regrets having to withdraw but looks forward to returning to San Francisco Opera in the future.

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 CavPag), 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.

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.

San Francisco Opera today announced a cast change for Gaetano Donizetti's Roberto Devereux, opening September 8 and running for six performances through September 27. Romanian-American baritone Andrew G. Manea will perform the role of the Duke of Nottingham, replacing Artur Rucinski who has withdrawn due to lung injuries sustained in a serious bicycling accident involving a car in his native Poland. He is expected to make a full recovery. Rucinski deeply regrets having to withdraw but looks forward to returning to San Francisco Opera in the future.

Arts advocate and San Francisco Opera board member Annette Campbell-White was honored at the sixth annual International Opera Awards (IOA) in London for her lifelong commitment to opera and support of young artists and the performing arts. At the black-tie ceremony held at the London Coliseum on April 9, Campbell-White was presented with the 2018 International Opera Award for Philanthropy. The event, sponsored by British accounting firm Mazars in association with BBC Radio 3 and Opera magazine, also included awards for Female Singer, Male Singer, Readers' Choice, Lifetime Achievement, Recording, among other categories.

The 2018 Schwabacher Recital Series concludes on April 4 with pianist Kevin Murphy and a quartet of current San Francisco Opera Adler Fellows-soprano Natalie Image, mezzo-soprano Ashley Dixon, tenor Amitai Pati and bass-baritone Christian Pursell-in a program celebrating the great American composer/conductor Leonard Bernstein and music of Aaron Copland, Charles Ives and Gustav Mahler.

San Francisco Opera Center and Merola Opera Program present the 35th anniversary season of the Schwabacher Recital Series, opening on February 21 and continuing through April 4. The four-recital series offers music lovers an opportunity to hear opera's next generation of stars in the intimate and state-of-the-art Taube Atrium Theater in San Francisco. New this season, the recital series moves to Wednesday evenings at 7:30 p.m.

San Francisco Opera will present two concerts on the War Memorial Opera House stage during the last two weeks of its 2017 Fall Season. On Friday, December 1, multi-platinum New Zealand trio Sol3 Mio performs with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra conducted byRobert Mollicone in a holiday concert, Christmas with Sol3 Mio. One week later, on December 8, San Francisco Opera Center's 2017 Adler Fellows perform their final concert of the year, The Future Is Now, with American conductor James Gaffigan leading the San Francisco Opera Orchestra.

San Francisco Opera Center Director Sheri Greenawald today announced the eleven recipients of the 2018 Adler Fellowship. Eight singers, two pianist/apprentice coaches and one director will take part in the program. The multi-year performance-oriented residency offers advanced young artists intensive individual training, coaching and professional seminars, as well as a wide range of performance opportunities. Adler Fellows are selected from the artists who have participated in the Merola Opera Program. The prestigious fellowship has nurtured the development of more than 175 young artists since its inception.

Throughout the 2017 Fall Season, San Francisco Opera's Education Department offers diverse programs to introduce community members of all ages to the world of opera and enhance their experience of the art form.

The 2017 Fall Season of San Francisco Opera continues in November and December with a new production of Jules Massenet's Manon (November 4 22), Giacomo Puccini's Turandot (November 18 December 9) and the highly anticipated world premiere of John Adams' Girls of the Golden West (November 21 December 10). Special concert presentations include the San Francisco Opera Chorus (November 30), the popular award-winning New Zealand vocal trio Sol3 Mio performing with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra (December 1) and The Future Is Now: Adler Fellows Concert (December 8). The Company's 95th season culminates in June 2018 with Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen.

San Francisco Opera presents Verdi's La Traviata in ten performances at the War Memorial Opera House, September 23 through October 17. Company Music DirectorNicola Luisotti leads an international cast featuring three artists making their Company debuts in leading roles: Romanian soprano Aurelia Florian as Violetta Val ry, Brazilian tenor Atalla Ayan as Alfredo Germont and Polish baritone Artur Rucinski as Giorgio Germont.

SF Opera Lab pops up at San Francisco's premiere electronic dance music club MEZZANINE, on October 12, 2017 with Operatronica, an operatic dance party combining opera and electronica and featuring performances by San Francisco Opera Adler Fellows alongside the Loves Company DJ crew

San Francisco Opera's partnership with the Bay Area's Classical KDFC continues this fall with monthly opera broadcasts beginning September 3with Giuseppe Verdi's Otello in a historic 1978 performance featuring Placido Domingo in the title role and Katia Ricciarelli as Desdemona. From October through December, the broadcasts will feature presentations from San Francisco Opera's 2017 Summer Season: Mozart's Don Giovanni,Verdi's Rigoletto and Puccini's La Boheme. Each broadcast was recorded live at the War Memorial Opera House and features the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and San Francisco Opera Chorus.