Live and in Concert: The Homecoming

Celebrate the start of a new era for San Francisco Opera with a one-night-only concert event featuring three of today’s greatest opera stars followed by a complimentary sparkling wine toast in the lobby.

For the first time since 2019’s acclaimed Rusalka, soprano Rachel Willis-Sørensen, mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton, and Music Director Eun Sun Kim join together with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra in an evening of music and glamour, celebrating the return of live opera to the War Memorial Opera House stage.

The Homecoming Celebration
- Pre-curtain and intermission receptions on the Loggia at the War Memorial Opera House and dinner immediately following the concert in the historic Green Room overlooking City Hall.

Opera at the Ballpark
- Concert was simulcast to Oracle Park, home of the San Francisco Giants. This was a free event open to the public.
- "On Friday, September 10, opera lovers, baseball fans and tens of thousands of Bay Area citizens will have the opportunity to celebrate Eun Sun Kim’s arrival as music director together in Oracle Park, home of the San Francisco Giants. In partnership with the Giants, Live and In Concert: The Homecoming will be simulcast live from the Opera House to the ballpark’s 71-foot high x 153-foot wide videoboard as the Company’s 13th free Opera at the Ballpark. The Bay Area community is invited to experience this beginning to an exciting new chapter for opera in San Francisco while seated on the baseball field or in the stands at this beloved al fresco event."

PROGRAM
Matthew Shilvock, Tad and Dianne Taube General Director

Eun Sun Kim, Caroline H. Hume Music Director


LIVE AND IN CONCERT: THE HOMECOMING
Friday, September 10, 2021, 7pm

War Memorial Opera House | Simulcast Live to Oracle Park


Rachel Willis-Sørensen, Soprano

Jamie Barton, Mezzo-Soprano

Eun Sun Kim, Conductor

San Francisco Opera Orchestra


Leichte Kavallerie (Light Cavalry), Franz von Suppé

Overture
San Francisco Opera Orchestra
Austrian composer Franz von Suppé’s operettas are mostly forgotten, but the overture to Light Cavalry (1866) remains a concert favorite. In the original plot a cavalry sergeant helps a young couple overcome myriad obstacles to marriage. The opening fanfare leads to the galloping main theme familiar from Hollywood soundtracks. A clarinet cadenza ushers in a moody "Hungarian" melody before the cavalry march returns for a rousing finish.

La Traviata, Giuseppe Verdi

“È strano … Sempre libera”
Rachel Willis-Sørensen
The courtesan Violetta muses over Alfredo's declarations of love. Disturbed to discover that her own emotions have been deeply stirred for the first time, she wonders aloud whether this is at last the true love she has longed for. But she quickly rejects the notion and forcefully resolves to forget Alfredo and devote herself to a life of pleasure, remaining “forever free.”

La Favorite, Gaetano Donizetti

“O mon Fernand”
Jamie Barton
Léonor is to be given by the King in marriage to her beloved, Fernand. She realizes she will bring Fernand dishonor when he learns that she has been the King’s “favorite,” or mistress. Though it will destroy her happiness, she resolves to tell Fernand the truth.

Louise, Gustave Charpentier

“Depuis le jour”
Rachel Willis-Sørensen
With serene delight, Louise describes how her life has changed since moving in with Julien. She revels in his love for her and sings of the delicious and growing ecstasy of her life, recalling with bliss the moment of their first kiss.

Don Carlo, Giuseppe Verdi

“O don fatale”
Jamie Barton
Princess Eboli is filled with angry remorse that the “fatal gift” of her own beauty has made her vain and deceitful, causing grief to those around her. Ordered to leave the court, she resolves to use her one remaining day to right her wrongs and rescue Don Carlo from prison.

Anna Bolena, Gaetano Donizetti

“Dio che mi vedi in core”
Rachel Willis-Sørensen, Jamie Barton
Jane Seymour has come to tell the condemned Anne Boleyn that her husband King Henry VIII will spare her life if she admits her amorous feelings for her first love, Lord Percy. When Jane says that Henry now loves another woman, Anne demands to know her identity and Jane reveals that it is herself.

INTERMISSION

Aida, Giuseppe Verdi

“Fu la sorte”
Rachel Willis-Sørensen, Jamie Barton
Princess Amneris suspects that her prisoner Aida loves her betrothed, the warrior Radamès. Determined to learn the truth, Amneris falsely declares that Radamès has been killed in battle. Aida’s grieving response, and her joy at hearing that Radamès is in fact still alive, confirm the princess’s fears. She furiously vows to crush her rival, as Aida begs her for mercy and pleads for help from the gods.

Rusalka, Antonín Dvorák

Polonaise
San Francisco Opera Orchestra
In Act II of Dvorák’s Rusalka a ball celebrates the impending wedding of the water sprite Rusalka, who has taken on human form to marry a prince. Elegant couples join in a polonaise, a stately courtly dance of Polish origin, with its distinctively vigorous triple meter rhythm. Brilliant trumpet fanfares introduce the majestic main theme, which alternates with quieter passages for woodwinds and strings before a bravura final flourish.

Rusalka, Antonín Dvorák

“Song to the Moon”
Rachel Willis-Sørensen
In Act I of Rusalka, the water sprite enamored of a prince laments the fact that she is unable to communicate with mortals directly. She pleads with the moon to tell the prince that she loves him and that he should remember her in his dreams.

Samson et Dalila, Camille Saint-Saëns

“Mon coeur s’ouvre à ta voix”
Jamie Barton
In her luxurious seduction scene, the temptress Dalila lures Samson into revealing the secret of his strength in this famous aria of enticement and love: “Mon coeur s’ouvre à ta voix”—“my heart opens to the sound of your voice.”

Capriccio, Richard Strauss

Mondscheinmusik (Moonlight Music)
San Francisco Opera Orchestra
The Countess is torn by the persistent wooing of two suitors, a poet and a composer, posing the question: Which does she love more, poetry or music? Having promised to make her decision by morning, she ponders as she walks in the moonlight. Does Strauss’ orchestral interlude hint at her choice?

Norma, Vincenzo Bellini

“Mira, o Norma”
Rachel Willis-Sørensen, Jamie Barton
Pollione, the father of Norma’s two young children, now loves her confidant Adalgisa. Contemplating suicide, Norma wishes to surrender her children into Adalgisa’s care, but Adalgisa’s urgent pleading revives Norma’s motherly instincts. The two women pledge eternal friendship and loyalty.

Selections from La Favorite. Rusalka, and Capriccio used by arrangement with Boosey & Hawkes, Inc.

This production is made possible, in part, by Opening Weekend Grand Sponsor Diane B. Wilsey.

Additional support is provided by Louise Gund; John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn; William and Gretchen Kimball Fund; and Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem, through the Luminaries Concert Fund.

Ms. Barton and Ms. Willis-Sørensen’s appearances are made possible by a gift to the Great Singers Fund by Joan and David Traitel.