San Francisco Opera Postpones the 2026 Opera Ball

Postcard, c. 1930s, of the War Memorial Opera House and Veterans Building, SF

From my personal collection

Received from SF Opera:

SAN FRANCISCO, CA (September 1, 2026) — San Francisco Opera announces a date change for Opera Ball 2026, the season-opening benefit gala presented by San Francisco Opera and San Francisco Opera Guild. Originally scheduled for Saturday, September 12 at San Francisco City Hall, Opera Ball will now take place on Thursday, November 12 at City Hall. The season-opening performance of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra at the War Memorial Opera House will continue as planned on September 12 without the gala component of the evening.

 

Opera Ball is the largest fundraiser for both San Francisco Opera and the San Francisco Opera Guild, supporting the artistic work of the Opera and the education programs of the Guild. The November red-carpet event will include cocktails, dinner and dancing inside a transformed City Hall and will not include a staged opera performance. Further details about the evening will be shared in the coming weeks.

 

The date change follows the recent announcement by the San Francisco Opera Orchestra of their intention not to perform unless the Opera and Orchestra have resolved a new collective bargaining agreement by opening night of the season. The Opera and Orchestra are in active negotiations, and the Company looks forward to reaching a new agreement together as soon as possible. Producing Opera Ball involves many logistics and many external providers, and the Company has decided it is better to give both sides in this negotiation more space to reach a successful resolution and to remove any uncertainty about the status of Opera Ball for those attending, supporting and producing the event.

 

Matthew Shilvock, Tad and Dianne Taube General Director of San Francisco Opera, said: “I am deeply grateful to all those involved in Opera Ball for pivoting to this new November date, particularly the co-chairs and host committee who are working tirelessly to make this such a special fundraiser. We feel that this is the best decision to ensure that this critical fundraising event can continue, free of any uncertainty, while at the same time giving negotiations the space needed to proceed ahead of what promises to be a beautiful opening of Simon Boccanegra on September 12. I am deeply grateful to all those attending Opera Ball for their understanding as we make this adjustment.”

 

Current Opera Ball 2026 ticketholders have the following options:

• Retain their current Opera Ball ticket(s) for the November 12 event (no action required, additional event information will follow).
• Visit sfopera.com/operaball to donate the value of their Opera Ball ticket to San Francisco Opera and San Francisco Opera Guild for a full tax deduction or to receive a refund.
• For further assistance or questions about Opera Ball, patrons are encouraged to contact the San Francisco Opera Box Office at (415) 621-4403.

 

As Opera Ball tickets are sold separately from Simon Boccanegra performance tickets, those wishing to adjust their performance date for Simon Boccanegra should contact the San Francisco Opera Box Office at (415) 864-3330.

 

San Francisco Opera’s 2026–27 Season opens September 12 with Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra led by Caroline H. Hume Music Director Eun Sun Kim conducting the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, Chorus and a cast of international artists in the composer’s drama of political and familial intrigue. The Company’s opening weekend continues on Sunday, September 13 with the free annual Opera in the Park concert featuring Eun Sun Kim, the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and stars of the Company’s fall season at Robin Williams Meadow in Golden Gate Park. For more information about San Francisco Opera’s 2026–27 Season, visit sfopera.com.

 

Received from San Francisco Opera

Postcard, c. 1930s, of the War Memorial Opera House and Veterans Building, SF

From my personal collection

A statement from the San Francisco Opera:

August 27, 2026

San Francisco Opera is in negotiations with our Orchestra for a successor collective bargaining agreement. The agreement expired on July 31, 2026. We have incredible respect for the Musicians of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and deeply value the talents they bring to the Company and the community. We share the Orchestra’s desire to reach a mutually agreeable resolution as soon as possible. A mediator was welcomed into the process last week, and we are actively working together with the Orchestra to reach a resolution.

As with many arts organizations, San Francisco Opera faces a difficult economic situation, and we appreciate that this is making for a challenging labor negotiation. While the Opera is seeing incredibly positive trends in audience and donor growth, the fundamental economics underlying the organization have been straining for over 60 years as expense growth has, over decades, outpaced revenue growth. This has led to the gradual reduction of our seasons and volume of work, a reality faced by many arts organizations.

Even with very positive revenue trends, the growing economic strain has put an unsustainable drain on the Opera’s endowment to balance the budget, and a need to resolve a structural deficit of $15M each year. Even with well-sold houses and increasing subscriptions, ticket sales only cover 15% of the Company’s budget, leading to an ever-increasing reliance on the Company’s extraordinarily generous donors and an imperative to maintain, not erode, the Company’s endowment. The income from our endowment is a critical source of our revenue, now larger than ticket sales.

The current structure of the Orchestra’s contract was designed for a volume of work that has not been economically feasible for many years. As we have already been doing with all of our employees, artists and labor organizations, we must find a way through this with the Orchestra to find a contract that respects their extraordinary talents and better aligns with the economic realities of the Company.

The Opera has shared a possible five-year framework with the Orchestra that would realize gradual changes to the structure of the Orchestra’s compensation while keeping their earnings constant to current levels each year over the coming five years. We look forward to exploring this and other options with the Orchestra and continuing our negotiations together as we work towards a mutually agreeable new contract.

One could have some...questions...about this. 

Let's take "straining for 60 years," which gets us back to 1966. Using the handy SFO performance archive, I found that in 1966, between Spring Opera and the fall season, the company staged (gasp) nineteen (19) operas. HOWEVER. Six of those were in the Spring Opera season, which ran from May 24 to June 28. Each of the productions – which included Mignon and Turn of the Screw – got two (2) performances.

The fall season ran from September 20 to November 27 and brought and additional 13 operas, which mostly received 3 or 4 performances, totaling 55 in all. Butterfly got 5, because, well, it's Butterfly and it sells. I Puritani got 6, and I'm willing to bet that the presence of Joan Sutherland in the cast was the reason, also Alfred Kraus and Nicolai Ghiarov, who were no slouches themselves.

Let me note that the fall season included Don Carlo, Elektra, Le Nozze de Figaro, Boris Godunov, Falstaff, Tannhäuser, Vec Makropulos, and, in a good-parts version designed to show off the great Regine Crespin, Les Troyens.

I ask you to imagine the quality of these performances. Thirteen operas in the fall, 1966, season, many of them very complex to stage, wedged into two months of performance. Seriously, comparing this to, say, a 10- or 12-opera, 75-performance season is not really right. More recent SFO seasons have more rehearsal time and each opera gets more performances; the orchestra has fewer scores to get through, etc.

We also should take a look at ticket prices and the ratio of ticket sales to donations. I can guess that prices were lower and that ticket sales brought in a much higher percentage of total income than current ticket sales do. I have no idea of whether the Opera Orchestra was permanent and salaried, or whether freelance musicians were hired. Again: look at what you're getting for your money.

Contract Negotiations

Postcard of the War Memorial Opera House and Veterans Building, SF

From my personal collection

Some of you will remember that San Francisco Opera's 2024 opening night performance of Un ballo in maschera was delayed by maybe half an hour. My assumption at the time was that, well, people were inebriated and just taking their time settling down.

We learned within a few days that the SF Opera Orchestra refused to go on until they got some labor concessions from management. There were various negotiations and eventually management and the orchestra signed a contract covering the period from August 1, 2024 to July 31, 2026.

Well....negotiations started in May and they have not been going well. Today, the Opera Orchestra announced that they would on strike as of opening night, September 12, unless there's a contract in place by then.

Here's email sent earlier today by the orchestra:

Dear Friends,

We are writing to let you know that the musicians of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra will not be able to perform on Opening Night, September 12, unless management has reached a fair contract with us before then. We are letting you know this weeks in advance rather than having you be surprised at the door.

Our contract expired on July 31, and the season is about to open without a new one. We came into these negotiations months ago, expecting to build on the modest agreement we reached two years ago. Management instead proposed a 26% pay cut, which would have returned us to 2015 wages. They have since "improved" that offer to a 20% cut, which would put us back at our 2018 pay. We cannot begin a season under proposals like these.

The San Francisco Opera is not a company in trouble. By management's own account, and by the financial information they have shared with us:

● Six productions have sold out in the past three years.

● Ticket sales and subscriptions are rising. Donations have increased by $8 million compared to last year, exceeding the Opera’s stated goals by $2.2 million.

● The Opera has recently received several high-profile gifts, and the number of “Producers Circle” donors–those who contribute over $100,000 per year–has more than doubled since the pandemic.

And yet despite the recent momentum, our seasons continue to shrink—we are now down to only six productions this year, compared to twelve productions in 2008. Every round of programming cuts has been presented as the cure for the organization’s deficit. But what their own financial reports have shown is that the diminished schedule has only exacerbated the issue.

Fewer performances mean less ticket revenue and fewer production sponsorships, while the fixed costs of mounting an opera remain the same. Twice in the past two decades, the deficit was larger after the cuts than before them. And while management claims that production costs are only going to continue to increase, they refuse to explore less expensive offerings such as semi-staged productions or concert operas.

We are not walking away from the table, and we want two things. First, a contract that gives the musicians of this orchestra stability and pay that keeps pace with the cost of living in this city. Second, a working partnership with management to reverse the pattern of cuts: more performances, longer runs of the productions that sell out, and a plan to grow the company's audience and offerings rather than further reduce its ambitions.

This is not a decision we take lightly and we hope that it can be avoided by management agreeing to a fair contract. There is nowhere we would rather be on September 12 than in the pit. We ask for your support so that we can make that happen.

If you want to help, write to San Francisco Opera at PatronServices@sfopera.com, tell them what opening night is worth to you, and ask them to settle this before the curtain.

Sincerely,

The Musicians of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra

Here are some older background articles, by Janos Gereben and myself:

• SF Opera Orchestra Reaches Contract Agreement Through End of This Season, November, 2024, SFCV, by Janos
• S.F. Artists Keep Up the Fight for Better Labor Contracts, December 2024, SFCV, by Janos
• SF Opera Orchestra Signs New Labor Contract, July, 2025, SFCV, by Janos
• SFO Season Announcement, February, 2026, SF Chronicle, by Lisa

A few thoughts -

I've heard Matthew Shilvock discussing the current financial situation a couple of times in talks to donors and I've also chatted with him about it. SFO is unquestionably in a pretty good financial situation: the endowment is in good shape and they're not having to dip into it; as the musicians say, subscriptions and major donations are up; the audience is expanding.

It is also true that costs are going up. You can tell this from looking at the various financial documents that SFO is required to production. There are the 990 federal tax forms filed by all nonprofit organizations and the audited financial statements that they also produce. 

For many years, you could take the number of performances at the Opera and the budget for the year and what you'd find was that it cost, in aggregate, about $1 million per performance to put on opera at the international level. As of the 990 filed last year, though, costs were roughly $90 to $93 million to put on around 45 performances and several one-off concerts, meaning costs were up to about $2 million per performance.

We are all aware of the amount of inflation we have seen in this country, with food, fuel, and many other costs going up. For opera companies, costs like getting costumes made and sets built have gone up, because of both labor and material costs. I have heard this from SFO and from another opera company I talk with.

It is absolutely true that the cost of living in the Bay Area has gone up a lot, in the cost of staples like food, cars, and so on, but also in the absolutely wild cost of buying or renting your home. 

Fewer performances means the musicians are providing fewer services (the length of time that rehearsals and performances are measured in, bearing in mind that opera performances can run up to five or six hours) than when they were playing 75 performances per season. I have absolutely no idea what you have to do to raise their pay for playing fewer rehearsals and performances and no idea what I think is fair. I assume that management's thinking along these lines is behind the attempt to cut the musicians' pay, which I find extremely distasteful. (See the example set by a famous union member who made sure to have union contracts in place and pay a fair wage throughout her long career. That would be the late Dolly Parton.)