San Francisco Opera Presents Mary, Queen of Scots at the War Memorial Opera House September 20–October 4

Scene from Mary, Queen of Scots with Heidi Stober. Photo: Ellie Kirttz/English National Opera
Clelia Cafiero (conductor); Stewart Laing (director and production designer)

Thea Musgrave’s 1977 opera returns to San Francisco in a new co-production by Stewart Laing, conducted by Clelia Cafiero and starring Heidi Stober

Thea Musgrave (composer); Heidi Stober (Mary); Thomas Mole (James Stewart); 
Christopher Sokolowski (Lord Darnley); Thomas Kinch (Earl of Bothwell)

Tickets available at (415) 864-3330 and sfopera.com
September 26 performance will be livestreamed

mary, queen of scots.pdf Photos

SAN FRANCISCO, CA (August 26, 2026) — Scottish-born composer Thea Musgrave’s 1977 opera, Mary, Queen of Scots, returns to San Francisco in a new co-production between San Francisco Opera and English National Opera by director and designer Stewart Laing. Italian conductor Clelia Cafiero makes her Company debut leading the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and a cast headed by soprano Heidi Stober in the title role. Chorus Director John Keene prepares the San Francisco Opera Chorus.

Mary, Queen of Scots, the fifth of composer Thea Musgrave’s 11 operas to date, explores the fight for political survival of one of history’s most iconic queens amid the determination of three men to usurp her power. Romantic playwright Friedrich Schiller, bel canto composer Gaetano Donizetti and numerous 20th-century novelists and filmmakers have all woven stories around Mary’s execution at the order of her cousin Elizabeth I. Musgrave’s opera, on the other hand, focuses on the young Mary’s contentious reign in Scotland and her constant fight to retain her throne as three men—her half-brother, second husband and a potential ally (and ultimately her third husband)—all vie to control her and appropriate her power. Her libretto juxtaposes scenes of public unrest and court intrigue with the gentle normalcy of motherhood as Mary sings a lullaby to her baby, the future king of Scotland and England, James I. Musgrave’s incisive score propels the turbulent events of the Queen’s reign with dramatic urgency and soaring lyricism.

Musgrave’s opera was introduced at the 1977 Edinburgh International Festival, where it enjoyed critical and popular success. The U.S. premiere of Mary, Queen of Scots followed in 1978 at Virginia Opera under the baton of Peter Mark, Musgrave’s husband and artistic and general director of the Company from 1975–2010. Musgrave, who was then a faculty member at the University of California Santa Barbara, conducted the opera’s West Coast premiere for San Francisco Opera affiliate Spring Opera Theater in April 1979 at the Curran Theatre.

Known for the clarity of her invention, the skill of her orchestrations and the power of her musical communication, Thea Musgrave has consistently explored new means of projecting dramatic situations in her music. Her large-scale and chamber operas of the past 50 years include The Voice of Ariadne (1973); Mary, Queen of Scots (1977); A Christmas Carol (1979); Harriet, The Woman Called Moses (1984); Simón Bolívar (1992) and Pontalba (2003). The immense diversity of her music has been showcased in major retrospectives, including the BBC’s Total Immersion weekend in 2014 and the Stockholm International Composer Festival 2018 where fifteen of her orchestral and chamber works were performed in four concerts. She has been the recipient of numerous awards including two Guggenheim Fellowships, the Ivors Classical Music Award 2018 and The Queen's Medal for Music. Approaching her 100th year in 2028, Musgrave’s centenary will be celebrated with concerts, performances and events worldwide honoring the composer’s remarkable life in music.

San Francisco Opera’s first-performed opera by a female composer—Musgrave’s Mary, Queen of Scots—returns this season for its mainstage premiere in director and designer Stewart Laing’s production. Co-lit by designers D.M. Wood and Mimi Jordan Sherin, the production was first presented by English National Opera in 2025. The Standard said of the production, which highlights sectarian violence in contemporary Scottish life: “Musgrave’s libretto highlights very contemporary issues such as who brings political stability, who brings peace, the competing claims of rich and poor, and Laing’s modern setting allows such questions to resonate.” Company Dance Master Colm Seery is the production’s choreographer.

The Guardian praised rising Italian conductor Clelia Cafiero’s 2024 debut with English National Opera conducting La Bohème for “drawing out luxurious richness from the strings and some elegantly shaped woodwind solos. Cafiero’s sense of pace … made for an extremely compelling performance.” Along with making her Company debut leading Mary, Queen of Scots, Cafiero will conduct Puccini’s Tosca in Summer 2027.

Heidi Stober returns to the role of the Scottish queen after winning acclaim as Mary at the London Coliseum in 2025: “Centre stage throughout is Mary, whose determination to bring peace to Scotland despite the forces mounted against her was portrayed with absolute conviction by the soprano Heidi Stober, who was outstanding in the role. Her set pieces in each act were especially powerful, notably the resolute Act 2 aria ‘I stand alone,’ which concludes with a rare but defiant major triad and ringing top notes” (Opera). Known to Bay Area audiences through her many vivid portrayals on the War Memorial Opera House stage, the San Francisco Chronicle said of Stober in 2022: “[Her] appearances with the Company have been reliable sources of joy ever since her 2010 debut in Massenet’s Werther. But her performance as Blanche [in Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites] added a new and even deeper level of psychological specificity to her expected vocal brilliance.”

British baritone Thomas Mole makes his American debut as Mary’s calculating half-brother James Stewart. Mole, who returns later this fall as Count Almaviva in San Francisco Opera’s presentation of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, was hailed by Opera Now for his starring role in the recent Glyndebourne Festival revival of Britten’s Billy Budd, “His prison cell scene, as he awaits execution, was pitch perfect, tender emotion delivered without undue pathos—and all done with his hands tied behind his back!”

Current San Francisco Opera Adler Fellow tenor Thomas Kinch portrays the Earl of Bothwell, a powerful lowland baron, would-be protector of the queen and eventually her third husband. Kinch’s performances with the Company have included Don José in Bizet’s Carmen, roles in Wagner and Mozart operas, and, most recently, the officer in Rossini’s The Barber of Seville. Following the 2025 Adler Fellows concert, the San Francisco Chronicle said, “the young heroic tenor Thomas Kinch sang with spectacular power and dark-toned beauty.”

Christopher Sokolowski makes his Company debut as Mary’s second husband, Lord Darnley. Sokolowski has distinguished himself in a wide repertoire, including Szymanowski’s King Roger where he “approached an ideal” in the role of the mysterious Shepherd. “His glowing, youthful voice rang forth with great dramatic power and boasted an incisive masculine timbre that lent a touch of requisite eroticism” (Opera).

Baritone Hadleigh Adams portrays the musician and secretary to the queen, David Riccio; bass David Soar is Cardinal Beaton; current Adler Fellow baritone Olivier Zerouali is the Earl of Morton; tenor Chance Jonas-O’Toole is the Earl of Ruthven; bass-baritone Philip Skinner is Lord Gordon; and Mary’s four eponymous ladies-in-waiting are performed by Adler Fellows Sadie Cheslak (Mary Seton), Sofia Gotch (Mary Beaton), Mary Hoskins (Mary Livingston) and Alexa Frankian (Mary Fleming).

Thea Musgrave said:

“I am thrilled to have my opera Mary, Queen of Scots return to San Francisco Opera this fall. I have always felt it to be the cornerstone of my operatic repertoire. It is also very close to me personally as I am a woman, a Scot and lived for several years in Paris. It was therefore easier for me than others to get inside of Mary’s feelings as the 18-year-old widowed Queen of France returning to Scotland as the Scottish Queen. Mary grew quickly to hold her own in a land menaced by the conflicting ambitions of the men that surrounded her—only in the end—ironically to be defeated and brought down by a woman, Queen Elizabeth I. Happily, Mary won the long game when her son, James VI of Scotland, became James I of England and Scotland on Elizabeth’s death. I am hoping my opera will likewise continue to bring her valor, her strength and particularly her emotional journey to life in a meaningful way for today’s audiences at San Francisco Opera.”

Composer and conductor Thea Musgrave rehearsing her opera Mary, Queen of Scots in 1979; 
Claudia Cummings in the title role of the 1979 production. Photos: Robert Messick (l), Ron Scherl (r)

Performed in English with English supertitles, the six performances of Mary, Queen of Scots are scheduled for September 20 (2 p.m.), 24 (7:30 p.m.), 26 (7:30 p.m.), 29 (7:30 p.m.); October 2 (7:30 p.m.), 4 (2 p.m.), 2026.

LIVESTREAM: Saturday, September 26

The Saturday, September 26 performance of Mary, Queen of Scots will be livestreamed at 7:30 p.m. PT and available to watch on demand for 48 hours beginning on Sunday, September 27 at 10 a.m. PT. Tickets for the livestream and on-demand viewing are $25 or $125 for all six operas during the 2026–27 Season. For tickets and more information, visit sfopera.com/digital.

POST-PERFORMANCE TALKBACK WITH EUN SUN KIM: Sunday, October 4

Following the final performance of Mary, Queen of Scots on Sunday, October 4, San Francisco Opera Music Director Eun Sun Kim will host a post-performance talkback. Her special guest will be Mary, Queen of Scots conductor Clelia Cafiero. Ticketholders are invited to gather for this discussion about the work that goes into presenting operas, from the pit to the stage and behind the scenes.

PRE-OPERA TALKS

Composer Anne Hege presents a 20-minute overview of Mary, Queen of Scots beginning 55 minutes prior to each performance for ticketholders. An audio recording of the talk will be made available at sfopera.com/mary-queen-of-scots.

*For the complete press release, open the PDF version above.