Speculation

War Memorial Opera House and Veterans Building

Van Ness Ave., San Francisco

Vintage postcard from my collection

San Francisco Opera's 2023-24 season is under way, with opera no. 3 of 8 opening in two days and the 2024-25 season announcement three-plus months away, so obviously it's time to speculate! Here's what I have on my Rumor & Gossip Operatic Future Seasons page:

I keep hoping that Matthew Shilvock will finally be able to stage his dream opera, which is Schoenberg's formidable Moses und Aron. As I mentioned a few years back, when he said this at a Wagner Society. meeting, there was an audible gasp in the room. The only staging in the US that I can recall offhand was at the Met, decades ago, with John Tomlinson. 

• Wagner TBD, conducted by Eun Sun Kim. We know it won't be Lohengrin. Matthew Shilvock did promise us Parsifal at some point. Note that Kim is conducting Parsifal in Houston in January, 2024.
• Verdi TBD, conducted by Eun Sun Kim. Maybe next season we will get Ernani, which was cancelled owing to the pandemic. My personal hope is for I Vespri Siciliani / Les Vepres Sicilienne, which I've never seen. An interview Kim in the Lohengrin program mentions Simon Boccanegra, a favorite of mine.
• Puccini, La Boheme. At the opening night gala for 2022-23, Matthew Shilvock slipped in the news that Pene Pati would be singing Rodolfo here soon. Pati is singing Nemorino in 23-24, so maybe next year.
• Samson et Dalilah, Brandon Jovanovich as Samson. Given when I heard about this, maybe in 2023-24 or the season after. Obviously not in 2023-24, so maybe next season?
• Madame White Snake, by Zhou Long. A friend spotted "this will be done at SFO in 2023" in the composer's bio in a San Francisco Symphony program. I asked SFO about it and the response was "San Francisco Opera has not made any announcement about this." Well, I knew that, and would bet that the composer's agent broke the usual restrictions on premature announcements and also that various people at SFO are now banging the walls or have their heads in their hands. Note: not done at SFO in 2023. Some year in the future?

Operas from the canceled 2020-21 season that haven't been staged included Rigoletto, which will surely be back at some point; Der Zwerg, and The Handmaid's Tale. I hope the latter two are staged eventually. The Handmaid's Tale, sadly, goes well with one of the more eye-rolling messages of Die Frau ohne Schatten.  Update, 12/23/23: The February, 2024, issue of Opera has, in its "We Hear That..." column the news that SFO will stage The Handmaid's Tale in the 2024-25 season. We'll know for sure in about five weeks, but...I think that news in this particular column is generally leaked provided by the companies in question.

Did I ever mention here who was sitting immediately in front of me at the Cal Performances staging of Michel van der Aa's Blank Out? None other than SFO music director Eun Sun Kim, general director Matthew Shilvock, and artistic administration Gregory Henkel. Blank Out was astonishing and I hope that they were on a scouting mission.

Update, 11/13/23: Given the success of Frida y Diego, Omar, and Dream of the Red Chamber, it wouldn't surprise me at all to see Madam White Snake, Florencia en el Amazonas, Fire Shut Up in My Bones, or Malcolm X on next year's schedule.

Please feel free to speculate in comments....or send me email!