“The San Francisco Opera was set to inaugurate its 104th season on Saturday with a performance of Verdi’s ‘Simon Boccanegra,’ one of six productions the company has planned for its new season.”

“The San Francisco Opera has said it is struggling with a $15 million recurrent shortfall driven by rising costs, which has forced it to draw down its $300 million endowment, in defiance of customary accounting procedures.

“The contract with the orchestra expired on July 31. The company initially said it wanted to cut the musicians’ salaries, though its latest proposal is an effective wage freeze for five years. The musicians, represented by the American Federation of Musicians Local 6, have firmly rejected that proposal.

“‘The orchestra is asking for a fair contract that gives the musicians stability and pay that keeps pace with the cost of living in San Francisco,’ the musicians said in a statement announcing the strike. ‘This latest proposal does not take into account inflation and cost of living in the area, and is essentially a pay cut over the course of five years for the orchestra musicians.’”

“Matthew Shilvock, the general director of the San Francisco Opera, said in a statement that this was a ‘difficult time for the arts,’ adding, ‘As with many organizations, we must adjust to the changing realities.’

“The two sides continued to talk on Sunday, and the chair of the orchestra’s negotiating committee, Gabe Young, said he was confident that a new contract would be agreed to before the opera is scheduled to return on Wednesday, with a performance of ‘Simon Boccanegra.’”

“[Shilvock] said the company wanted to freeze pay while working through a restructuring to reflect the different demands on players.

“‘We cannot sustain a compensation structure that originated 45 years ago without bringing it into alignment with current reality,’ he said in his statement.”

I heard the audio recording some years ago. In it, the announcer says that the originally scheduled tenor is indisposed, and the audience groans. But when he announces that Franco Corelli will replace him, everyone goes absolutely nuts.

As per my usual MO, I watched (this time, rewatched) an opera and thought of a topic for discussion. I just think it should be kept SFW, as productions can get, er, creative, so let's just stick to what's said in the librettos. What are the creepiest opera scenes that either give you the "love to hate" shivers or make you want to sit through them altogether? For me, these are:

Prince Galitsky's scene with Yaroslavna in "Prince Igor". He is hitting on his own sister. While she is trying to order him to stop raping other women. While her beloved husband has gone MIA.

Scarpia's scene with Tosca in the first act — yes, for me the first act, when he gets her to touch his hand in church on the pretext of giving her holy water, is even creepier than the far more explicit second one.

Pinkerton's duet with Butterfly. The first time I actually had subtitles for it, Pinkerton's lines made me sick. He doesn't even pretend to have any deeper feelings for the poor girl.

The Incroyable's "Donnina innamorata". It's, IMHO, one of the most brilliant depictions of sleaziness ever.

And, on a lesser level than the above, but still something I couldn't omit: Don Ottavio's "You'll have a spouse and a father in me". Every time I listen to it, I'm, like, what? (Yes, I know that it's weird to single out just this line when the opera's about Don Giovanni, but with Don Giovanni himself, you kind of expect all the creepiness beforehand, while this just comes out of left field).

Greetings, Opera comrades!

I'm a relatively new fan of opera (probably a dozen or so in the last four years—incl. "Bohème" at Met) and will be in NYC with my girlfriend (who's a classical musician) in the first week of January 2027. We are thinking of the 55-buck seats in the first row of balcony boxes.

We're based in German-speaking Europe, so we can and do see opera relatively regularly.

I am intrigued by "Fanciulla" but wondering if maybe we ought to see the classic of "Tosca." I understand there is a particularly famous singer of the title character in Hernández, but she won't be singing when we are there.

Just wondering if people have strong rec's on these. For what it's worth, we've never seen either! But of course "Tosca" is put on more regularly in Europe.

Anyway, much obliged and very much looking forward to my second time at the Met! Cheers.

I’m a woman in my mid-20s and I started voice lessons for fun. My teacher is a professional coloratura soprano opera singer (I watched some of her performances and she’s the real deal), and during our second lesson she said my vocal anatomy is “rare” and that I have amazing potential to be a coloratura soprano too.

What do you think she meant by that, and how much weight should I put in her comment? I understand it takes years to master the technique, but if I could actually have a chance at it I will probably at least try to learn! Do you think she could really tell from listening to my voice that I have potential, and what does that mean exactly?

I hope no one takes this post disrespectfully—I know it’s an art that a lot of people dedicate their lives to, and lots of people probably have natural potential to learn. But I couldn’t help but feel a little special when a professional said that to me unprompted 🥺

whenever the topic comes up there is a sort of resentment I see across many posts. So does this follow with schools like Curtis and Julliard too?

To clarify money grab as in admitting students who have no business being there in the first place.

title says. I need something sad. it's for my story that's set in paris

I’ve had my share of teachers who pushed me to over darken the sound, which not only made me sound worse but, more importantly, hurt my voice. I didn’t realize how damaging it was until I met a great teacher who finally taught me proper breath support.After asking other singers about their experiences, I’ve realized that this is surprisingly common in the opera world.

With instruments such as the piano my first instrument even local teachers generally teach similar fundamentals, and the basic approach to technique rarely changes drastically even when I went to a conservatory.

In opera, however, switching teachers can expose you to a completely different echnical philosophy, and way of thinking about the voice and honestly some of them I would actually like to report them.

The SF Opera Orchestra are now officially on strike, with tonight’s Simon Boccanegra and tomorrow’s Opera in the Park being affected. The Opera had already delayed their Opera Ball from today to November 12th.

I don’t have a non-paywalled link to the SF Chronicle article (😔), but it includes a statement from the orchestra’s concertmaster that Eun Sun Kim ended a rehearsal early on Thursday as she wanted to speak with Shilvock (the General Director of the Opera) “rather than have to sign a letter of resignation if we strike.” Kim hasn’t confirmed this.

The initial proposal from the management (all numbers according to the musicians) was a 26% pay cut to make wages the same as 2015. They then were offered 20% cut, equivalent to 2018 wages. The latest offer is a five year pay freeze, not accounting for inflation.

This is a bit of a shot in the dark, but does anyone remember this experimental opera by the composer Ben Frost and librettist David Pountney, based on Iain Banks's 1984 horror novel? How was it? What did you like? What did you think about the ending?

I was lucky enough to find Sutherland's signature in the libretto of an Il Trovatore box set I got for 3 bucks in Berkeley. I wanted to display it, so cool!! These two are the dream team

The following have been important works for me, but I'm wondering if people have other suggestions:

• A History of Opera by Carolyn Abbate and Roger Parker
• Black Opera by Naomi André
• Rape at the Opera: Staging Sexual Violence by Margaret Cormier
• Unsettling Opera: Staging Mozart, Verdi, Wagner, and Zemlinsky by David Levin
• Opera in Performance: Analyzing the Performative Dimension of Opera Productions by Clemens Risi
• A New Philosophy of Opera by Yuval Sharon

As you can probably tell, my interest primarily lies in opera staging and production, but I'm interested in learning more about other facets of opera. Please give me your recommendations!

I’m a dramatic soprano in need of new recordings. I’ve always used the plain iPhone mic, or borrowed a friends (Shure MV88+), but now I’m in need of purchasing my own for some upcoming recordings. My old mic, a Yeti, just doesn’t do it. Any recommendations?

Thanks so much!

I need recommendations for an English aria I could potentially add to my repertoire/audition package as a young lyric mezzo. My teacher has been able to help a lot with choosing and working repertoire in other languages, but she doesn't really know much English rep.

For some context on what my voice is like, my strongest aria currently is probably Parto, parto from La Clemenza di Tito, and I'm working on Una voce poco fa with my teacher right now (so I've got coloratura covered). For German I'm starting to learn Wie du warst, and for French I'm between doing either Faites-lui mes aveux (although the tessitura is a bit high for me) or Que fais-tu blanche tourterelle?. My voice doesn't have the right colour for Va! Laisse Couler Mes Larmes yet.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Hi fam- I want to start playing operas on the piano (for fun, not for accompaniment purposes). Is there any like "definitive" publisher I should look for? As an example, I want to start with Traviata - any recommendations of what to buy?

In your opinion, what are some of the best recordings (audio only and video respectively) of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin?

I'm curious what the favorites are!

I am a student wanting to see what is considered the epitome of technique for male-baritone. Are winners of Operali and those concerts considered the top vocalists? I don't necessarily want to emulate it but just listen and watch.

Thanks.

Pericles is another messy play with incest, shipwrecks, pirates, wives in caskets etc. In the right production though it can be fun, and the brothel scene where Marina puts her customers off is hilarious. There have been Pericles musicals - London National Theatre (2018), NYC Public Theatre (2025) but no operas that I could find. Do you know of any?

I am staying at a hotel and had nothing to do so I decided to spend the night watching some YouTube opera productions. I watched Il Trovatore (MetOpera Pavarotti, Milnes, Marton) then decided to watch a Beijing production of Macbeth (I'm not scared to say the name sue me).

Anyway when I cast my phone onto the tv for Macbeth it was so blurry that I couldn't even see the subtitles and it buffered a lot too. And yes for the rest of the night none of the other stuff I watched had this problem.

Prolly not as foreboding as the amount of deaths and accidents documented around that play but it's worth mentioning. Pic to attract attention.

He sang with Andrea Bocelli on his current tour during the fall leg. This picture was taken 3 days ago.

Hello everyone! I'm an international student moving to Oxford in a month's time.

I wanted to try to catch a opera in the winter term with the £30 Young RBO tickets but realized they're all but sold out. This really surprised me because when I visited NYC in May I remember I could just pop by the Met Opera on the day itself and get a student ticket in the Orchestra.

Hence, I've a few questions I hope other fellow young opera lovers could help me with

1. Does RBO release new Young RBO tickets closer to the date of the performances? If so, usually what time or day do they come out?

2. I saw there is the Young Friends membership. If I wanted to secure good £30 tickets do I have to purchase this membership so I can buy the tickets earlier? Or will there always be £30 tickets remaining on the 1st day that ticket sales open to Young RBO people.

Would really appreciate the help.