
Cleopatra
This Fall
WORLD PREMIERE
By John Adams
Dates
September 10–October 5, 2022
Composer
John Adams
Price
Starting at $26
Run Time
2 hours, 56 minutes including one intermission
Language
Sung in English with English supertitles
Libretto
John Adams
San Francisco Opera's 100th Season begins with John Adams' thrilling new opera, commissioned for the Company's centennial and conducted by Music Director Eun Sun Kim.
Libretto by John Adams from Shakespeare with supplementary passages from Plutarch, Virgil and and other classical texts. Libretto consultation by Elkhanah Pulitzer and Lucia Scheckner.
Why See It
One of the 21st century’s greatest composers tackles the Shakespearean equivalent of a celebrity romance, set in a universe where ancient Egypt meets Old Hollywood.
Secure Your Place In History
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SAT, SEP 10, 2022
7:30 PM
THU, SEP 15, 2022
7:30 PM
SUN, SEP 18, 2022
2:00 PM
FRI, SEP 23, 2022
7:30 PM
TUE, SEP 27, 2022
7:30 PM
SUN, OCT 2, 2022
2:00 PM
WED, OCT 5, 2022
7:30 PM
"John Adams... [is] a shining light in classical music."
-San Francisco Chronicle
"Her grace, her stage play and her charisma are dazzling: The soprano [Amina Edris] approaches each emotional state of her character with an incredible intensity."
-Forum Opéra
"[Gerald] Finley... sings with the mellow baritone of a man about to stride into legend." -New York Magazine
A Roman general and an Egyptian queen embark on a torrid romance, one that will disrupt alliances, end marriages, and spark a pitiless war that gives rise to a new leader, Caesar.
Composer
* San Francisco Opera Debut
PERFORMANCES
September 10, 15, 18, 23, 27; October 2, 5, 2022
Co-commissioned and co-produced with the Liceu Opera Barcelona, the Teatro Massimo Palermo, and the Metropolitan Opera New York
Get a sense of John Adam's music from two of his previous operas, Nixon in China and Doctor Atomic.
“News, news, news”/James Maddalena as Nixon, Sanford Sylvan as Chou En-Lai; “Batter my heart”/Gerald Finley; “Am I in Your Light?”/Julia Bullock
Courtesy of Nonesuch Records
This production is made possible, in part, by Opening Weekend Grand Sponsor Diane B. Wilsey.
Additional support provided by the Carol Franc Buck Foundation; the Edgar Foster Daniels Foundation; Bertie Bialek Elliott; Bob Ellis; John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn; and the Phyllis C. Wattis Fund for New Productions.
This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.