Gockley Gala

San Francisco Opera's summer season will include a gala performance in honor of David Gockley's tenure at the company. There was a Mansouri Gala back in the day; Pamela Rosenberg didn't get one.

The Gockley Gala will be at 7 p.m. on Thursday, June 16, a day on which I won't, unfortunately, be able to attend. There's a gala dinner, too. Various money details:

Tickets for the Celebrating David! concert are $50, $100, $150, $200, $250, $350 and $450 ($450 tickets include premium concert seating and pre-performance reception with David Gockley). Tickets are available at sfopera.com or the San Francisco Opera Box Office at 301 Van Ness Avenue or by phone at (415) 864-3330.

VIP packages, including the reception and post-performance black-tie dinner, are also available. For more information and to purchase VIP package tickets, call the Medallion Society Ticket Concierge at (415) 565-6447.

Says the press release:

The roster of acclaimed artists includes sopranos Renée Fleming, Ana María Martínez, Karita Mattila, Patricia Racette, Nadine Sierra and Heidi Stober; mezzo-sopranos Susan Graham, Daniela Mack and Dolora Zajick; tenors Michael Fabiano, Brian Jagde and Simon O’Neill; bass-baritone Eric Owens; bass René Pape; San Francisco Opera Music Director Nicola Luisotti, Principal Guest Conductor Patrick Summers and guest conductors Jiří Bělohlávek and John DeMain. The gala concert will also feature video appearances by special guest artists. Veteran artist manager Matthew Epstein is the artistic consultant for this concert.

No sign of former MD Donald Runnicles, who is conducting Tristan und Isolde and Abduction from the Seraglio at Deutsche Oper Berlin that week.

There's a paragraph in the press release of Gockley's achievements, which are many. I'm glad it mentions labor peace, dressed up in prettier words, it mentions the increase in the endowment, but I wish it were more explicit about his heroic work to rescue the company's finances.