SFO to Live-stream This Month’s Performances

Readers may recall that, a little less than a month ago, this site announced the specifics regarding the new production of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 72 Fidelio to be presented by San Francisco Opera (SFO) during the second half of this month. Early this past week, SFO announced that the first three of the six performances of this production will be live-streamed. The operative word in that last sentence is “live.” Each video will be a unique real-time video account of the performance taking place on that date. The usual controls for playing the video (such as pausing and resuming) will not be operative; nor are there plans to archive the content for subsequent on-demand viewing.

Design of the prison setting by Alexander V. Nichols for Fidelio (courtesy of SFO)

As has already been reported, the production will present a contemporary perspective of political imprisonment staged by Matthew Ozawa. The vocalists will include soprano Elza van den Heever in the title role, along with tenor Russell Thomas, baritone Greer Grimsley, and bass James Creswell. The cast will also include four Adler Fellows, all making role debuts. These will include soprano Anne-Marie Macintosh, who will be making her SFO debut. The other Adler Fellows will be tenor Christopher Oglesby, tenor Zhengyi Bai, and bass Stefan Egerstrom. The SFO Chorus will be prepared by Director Ian Robertson, and the conductor will be Music Director Eun Sun Kim.

These live-streams will be treated as ticketed events. Streaming will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, October 14, and Wednesday, October 20, and at 2 p.m. on Sunday, October 17. Like the performances in the War Memorial Opera House, these will be ticketed events. The price of all three of the live-streams will be $25. SFO has created a Web page for purchases for all three of these dates. Tickets may also be purchased by calling the SFO Box Office at 415-864-3330. Either way ticket-holders will be required to give an electronic mail address, through which instructions for viewing the live performance will be sent.