Falk Struckmann

The Met has announced themed lineups for two weeks of its Nightly Met Opera Streams, the company’s ongoing series of encore Live in HD presentations and classic telecasts streamed on the its website during the coronavirus closure.

Broadway might be dark, but that doesn't mean that theatre isn't happening everywhere! Below, check out where you can get your daily fix of Broadway this weekend, April 24-25, 2021.

The schedule includes a week featuring operas centered around morally admirable characters and the power of the human spirit, and a week of operas set in Paris, entitled City of Light. The April 23 stream of Philip Glass’s Satyagraha is being presented in partnership with Carnegie Hall as part of their Voices of Hope festival.

On March 27, 2021, San Francisco Opera presented an online stream of its 2017-2018 production of Götterdämerung, the fourth opera of Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle. Stage Director Francesca Zambello has shown us a rapidly deteriorating world in Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, and Siegfried, so the opening projections of clouds and smoke stacks are no surprise.

On March 20, 2021, San Francisco Opera presented a free stream of Richard Wagner’s opera Siegfried as part of Francesca Zambello’s 2017-2018 American Ring. Forest projections set the mood for Runnicles and Zambello’s nature-friendly, quasi-impressionistic rendering of the opera. Lighting Designer Mark McCullough illuminated the opening scene as though it was  a dream.

San Francisco Opera's online Ring Festival continues throughout March with free streaming of Richard Wagner's four-part The Ring of the Nibelung and live ticketed events online. The Ring Festival schedule featuring an array of interviews, panel discussions and lectures with artists and scholars has been updated, including the addition of two new free events.

On Saturday, March 6, 2021, San Francisco Opera did a wonderful thing. The company put the opening opera of Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelungen online, free to  the world of opera lovers and the universe of the curious. Anyone with access to the Internet can see the entire Ring on weekends in March, and I, for one, am extremely grateful. 

Nicole Braunger, the first woman opera director at Staatstheater Karlsruhe, will remain with the theater for three more years, until the summer of 2024. 'I am pleased that the theater management has agreed to my wish to stay at this house,' said Braunger in a tweet. 'For me it is an affair of the heart to stay at this house.'

San Francisco Opera Tad and Dianne Taube General Director Matthew Shilvock announces re-envisioned Spring 2021 programming including a return to live performances with a new production of Gioachino Rossini's The Barber of Seville and concerts offered in a drive-in setting at San Rafael's Marin Center in April and May.

San Francisco Opera General Director Matthew Shilvock today announced the Company's 98th season, which opens on September 11, 2020 with an Opening Night Celebration featuring soprano Albina Shagimuratova and tenor Pene Pati in concert with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra conducted by Music Director Designate Eun Sun Kim. Opening Night festivities include San Francisco Opera Guild's Opera Ball, BRAVO! CLUB's annual Opening Night Gala and two new events: the Opera Supper in the Veterans Building's elegant Green Room and, for the entire audience, a celebratory, post-concert toast to the season.

In an onstage presentation following the July 1 performance of Richard Wagner's Gotterdammerung, San Francisco Opera General Director Matthew Shilvock presented former general director David Gockley with the San Francisco Opera Medal, the Company's highest honor. An industry pioneer who helped shape the operatic repertory and build new audiences for the artform, Gockley served ten years at the helm of San Francisco Opera and is currently the Company's General Director Emeritus.

San Francisco Opera's presentation of Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung) opens tonight with the first of three complete cycles, each presented over the course of one week as the composer originally intended, from June 12 through July 1 at the War Memorial Opera House. Encompassing four operas-Das Rheingold, Die Walkure, Siegfried and Gotterdammerung-and more than 17 hours, Wagner's Ring is one of the most ambitious works of music, theater and stagecraft ever created.

Complementing the highly-anticipated performances of Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen on the stage of the War Memorial Opera House (June 12-July 1), San Francisco Opera presents its ongoing Ring Festival of ancillary events and activities. Designed to deepen public engagement and provide informative, fun ways to explore Wagner's profound masterwork, the Ring Festival offers a diverse schedule of lectures, exhibitions, film screenings, musical programs and opportunities to hear from artists, production team members and Wagner experts.

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 presents Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung) in three complete cycles, each presented over the course of one week as the composer originally intended, from June 12 through July 1 at the War Memorial Opera House. Encompassing four operas-Das Rheingold, Die Walkure, Siegfried and Gotterdammerung-and more than 17 hours, the story and music of Wagner's Ring are the acme of the operatic artform and one of the most ambitious works of music, theater and stagecraft ever created. In anticipation of the performances, San Francisco Opera today announced a schedule for its Ring Festival events designed to provide the public, from first-timers to experienced Ring-goers, with enriching activities including lectures, symposia, film screenings, musical programs, public discussions and a Ring Community Day for families.

Beethoven's only opera, FIDELIO, was the last of three operas this season at the Met to take place in Seville, after CARMEN and BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA. Third time definitely wasn't the charm.

San Francisco Opera General Director Matthew Shilvock and Music Director Nicola Luisotti today announced plans for the 2017-18 repertory season. The Company's 95th season will open Friday, September 8 with a gala performance of Giacomo Puccini'sTurandot led by Maestro Luisotti and an international cast starring Martina Serafin, Maria Agresta and Brian Jagde.

San Francisco Opera General Director Matthew Shilvock today announced the casting and schedule for the Company's summer 2018 presentations of Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung). The four-opera cycle of Das Rheingold,Die Walkure, Siegfried and Gotterdammerung-widely considered the greatest and most ambitious work ever conceived for the lyric stage-will be presented in three complete cycles from June 12 through July 1, 2018. 

The Metropolitan Opera's 2016-17 season, the 50th anniversary of its home at Lincoln Center, will feature 225 opera performances of 26 operas in a varied repertory that ranges from 18th century masterpieces to one of the most acclaimed operas in recent years. Repertoire for the company's 132nd season will include the Met premiere of Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho's 2000 opera L'Amour de Loin, as well as new stagings of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, Rossini's Guillaume Tell, Gounod's Romeo et Juliette, Dvo?ak's Rusalka, and Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier. A gala concert on May 7, 2017 will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the company's Lincoln Center location with performances by opera's leading stars honoring the Met's past and future. Ticket prices will not increase, remaining the same as in the current season, and audience development programs instituted by the company in recent years will continue.  

Two spectacular operas from the Met are coming to The Ridgefield Playhouse as encore productions this month. Verdi's Shakespearean masterpiece Otello stars Johan Botha in the title role opposite acclaimed soprano Renee Fleming as Desdemona today, July 9. On Wednesday, July 16, Handel's The Enchanted Island showcases the talents of William Christie, David Daniels, Joyce DiDonato and Pacido Domingo. These performances start at 6 p.m. Advantages of the HD broadcasts are the interesting camera angles, behind-the-scenes tours and interviews.