SFO: Opening Night Program Announced

Eun Sun Kim conducting the SFO Orchestra for the 2022 Opera Ball

Readers may recall that, a little less than three weeks ago, this site announced the opening weekend of festive activities presented by San Francisco Opera (SFO) before the first performance of the season’s first opera production, Giuseppe Verdi’s Il Trovatore. Music lovers will be happy to learn that yesterday the program for the Opening Night Concert was finalized. The guest artists for this occasion will be tenor Roberto Alagna and soprano Aleksandra Kurzak. They will perform with the SFO Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Music Director Eun Sun Kim. In addition, Adler Fellow Olivia Smith will join the two vocalists for an excerpt from Pietro Mascagni’s one-act opera, “Cavalleria Rusticana.”

The entire program will last about 90 minutes without intermission; the selections to be performed are as follows:

• “Regina Coeli … Inneggiamo” from “Cavalleria Rusticana” (Pietro Mascagni); Aleksandra Kurzak, San Francisco Opera Chorus
• “Tu qui Santuzza” from “Cavalleria Rusticana” (Mascagni); Aleksandra Kurzak, Roberto Alagna, Olivia Smith
• Intermezzo from “Cavalleria Rusticana” (Mascagni); San Francisco Opera Orchestra
• “Un jour de nous tu détournas tu face… Arrêtez mes frères.. Et nous rend l’espérance” from Samson et Dalila (Camille Saint-Saëns); Roberto Alagna, San Francisco Opera Chorus
• “Bacchanale” from Samson et Dalila (Saint-Saëns); San Francisco Opera Orchestra
• “Vissi d’arte” from Tosca (Giacomo Puccini); Aleksandra Kurzak
• “Recitar … Vesti la giubba” from Pagliacci (Ruggero Leoncavallo); Roberto Alagna
• “Tu, tu amore? Tu?” from Manon Lescaut (Giacomo Puccini); Aleksandra Kurzak, Roberto Alagna
• “La Spagnola” (Vincenzo Di Chiara); Aleksandra Kurzak, Roberto Alagna
• “Be my Love” (Nicholas Brodsky); Aleksandra Kurzak, Roberto Alagna
• “Cielito lindo” (Quirino Mendozo y Cortés); Aleksandra Kurzak, Roberto Alagna
• “Libertà” (David Alagna); Aleksandra Kurzak, Roberto Alagna
• “Lippen Schweigen” from The Merry Widow (Franz Lehár); Aleksandra Kurzak, Roberto Alagna
• “Funiculì funiculà” (Luigi Denza); Aleksandra Kurzak, Roberto Alagna
• “Libiamo” from La Traviata (Giuseppe Verdi); Aleksandra Kurzak, Roberto Alagna, San Francisco Opera Chorus

As was previously announced, a Web page has been created for purchasing tickets. Ticket prices range from $30 in the Balcony to $300 in the Grand Tier and the Dress Circle. It will also be possible to purchase a livestream of the performance for $27.50. Because it is “live,” there will be no replay period for this video.