Operas to be Excerpted for Merola Grand Finale

The programming for the annual Merola Grand Finale has not yet been totally finalized. However, the Merola Opera Program has now released the list of operas that will provide excerpts for the program. That list includes the following:

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro (K. 492)
• Giacomo Puccini: Madama Butterfly and La bohème
• Georges Bizet: Les pêcheurs de perles (the pearl fishers) and Carmen
• Charles Gounod: Roméo et Juliette and Faust
• Pietro Mascagni: L’amico Fritz
• George Frideric Handel: Amadigi di Gaula (Amadis of Gaul, HWV 11)
• Hector Berlioz: L’enfance du Christ (the childhood of Christ)
• Gaetano Donizetti: Don Pasquale, L’elisir d’amore (the elixir of love), and Lucia di Lammermoor
• Jeanine Tesori: Blue
• William Grand Still: Highway 1, USA
• Benjamin Britten: Albert Herring
• John Adams: Doctor Atomic
• Giuseppe Verdi: Falstaff
• Richard Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos

All of this season’s Merolini will participate. In alphabetical order they are:

• Veena Akama-Makia (Mezzo-soprano)
• Amanda Batista (Soprano)
• Cody Bowers (Countertenor)
• Le Bu (Bass-baritone)
• Andres Cascante (Baritone)
• Shawn Chang (Pianist/Coach)
• Edwin Jhamaal Davis (Bass)
• Daniel Luis Espinal (Tenor)
• Adia Evans (Soprano)
• Gongming Jiang (Pianist/Coach)
• Chance Jonas-O'Toole (Tenor)
• SeungYun Kim (Bass-baritone)
• Maggie Kinabrew (Soprano)
• Scott Lee (Baritone)
• Chelsea Lehnea (Soprano)
• Yang Lin (Pianist/Coach)
• Celeste Morales (Soprano)
• Artyom Pak (Pianist/Coach)
• Jonghyun Park (Tenor)
• Olivia Prendergast (Soprano)
• Nikola Adele Printz (Mezzo-soprano)
• Maggie Reneé (Mezzo-soprano)
• Deborah Robertson (Pianist/Coach)
• Ashley Marie Robillard (Soprano)
• Arianna Rodriguez (Soprano)
• Sahel Salam (Tenor)
• Moisés Salazar (Tenor)
• Matthew J. Schulz (Stage Director)
• Olivia Smith (Soprano)
• William Socolof (Bass-baritone)
• Erin Wagner (Mezzo-soprano)

The conductor will be Patrick Furrer, who has been a staff member of the Metropolitan Opera since 2011. As observed above, the staging of the entire production will be directed by Schultz. The performance will begin at 7:30 pm. on Saturday evening, August 20. Ticket prices will be $53, $43, and $28. The performance will take place in the War Memorial Opera House, which is located at 301 Van Ness Avenue on the northwest corner of Grove Street.

Tickets will be sold at the Box Office in the outer lobby, and they can be purchased online through a Web page on the San Francisco Opera Web site. The hyperlink for tickets leads to a Web page that displays which sections of the Opera House are available at which prices. This will facilitate seat selection through a hyperlink to a Web page that finalizes the purchase. For those wishing to purchase tickets at the Box Office, it is open on Monday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tickets can also be purchased by calling the Box Office telephone number, which is 415-864-3330.