San Francisco Opera To Present Richard Wagner's The Ring of the Nibelung in June/July 2028
Eun Sun Kim and Francesca Zambello. Photo: Cody Pickens
Music Director Eun Sun Kim will lead Wagner’s epic for the first time in director Francesca Zambello’s celebrated production including pre-cycle runs of the first two Ring operas leading up to the full cycles
Scenes from The Ring of the Nibelung in 2018. Photos: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera
Cast headed by soprano Tamara Wilson in her Company debut as Brünnhilde, baritone Brian Mulligan as Wotan and Simon O’Neill as Siegfried
ring announcement june/july 2028.pdf Photos
SAN FRANCISCO, CA (November 11, 2025) — At a special event held at the Diane B. Wilsey Center for Opera, San Francisco Opera Tad and Dianne Taube General Director Matthew Shilvock and Caroline H. Hume Music Director Eun Sun Kim announced plans for the Company’s upcoming presentation of Richard Wagner’s 1876 masterwork The Ring of the Nibelung (Der Ring des Nibelungen) in summer 2028. Shilvock and Kim were joined for the announcement by director Francesca Zambello whose staging, a co-production of San Francisco Opera and Washington National Opera, will be remounted for the cycles and baritone Brian Mulligan who will portray the role of Wotan.
Wagner’s Ring cycle, among the most ambitious and intricately crafted works of art in human history, consists of four operas—Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung—performed over the course of a week, and relating a story of gods, heroes, greed, corruption, love and redemption. Eun Sun Kim will conduct three full cycles of The Ring of the Nibelung in 2028 and each of the four music dramas in standalone performances leading up to Ring Festival.
Matthew Shilvock said: “San Francisco is a city with an extraordinary Wagnerian tradition. Since 1935, San Francisco Opera has brought to life Wagner’s epic journey of the Ring with the most exciting artists in the world. I am profoundly grateful to Eun Sun Kim for the journey she is now taking us on, building a new chapter in that storied Wagnerian history. The current triumph she is having with Parsifal is a thrilling indication of what is to come in 2028. Eun Sun probes so insightfully into these works, illuminating their humanity in a way that reverberates with audiences at a deep level. Her interpretation will connect so profoundly with Francesca Zambello’s spectacular production which encapsulates the immediate connection of Wagner’s drama for audiences today. The Ring is the story of humanity, and this set of cycles comes at a time when collective story telling is so achingly needed in the world. These cycles will be moments for us to come together as a community, on both sides of the proscenium, and find shared meaning in one of the most awe-inspiring works ever created.”
In 2023, Eun Sun Kim began a multi-season initiative to conduct the works of Wagner each season in San Francisco. She started with Lohengrin, the preparation for which was captured in the NorCal Emmy-nominated documentary Eun Sun Kim: A Journey Into Lohengrin, followed by Tristan und Isolde in 2024 and this season’s new production of Parsifal. Praise for these presentations has been expansive. About Lohengrin, the San Francisco Chronicle said, “Throughout the opera’s 4½-hour span, Kim maintained a rhythmic control that was at once propulsive and free.” San Francisco Classical Voice said of Tristan und Isolde: “Kim commands every page of this daunting and harmonically unsettled score.” Kim’s leadership of Parsifal was hailed by the San Francisco Opera Chronicle: “Under her guidance, the Opera Orchestra mustered the gauzy delicacy that is the distinctive province of parts of the Parsifal score, as well as the supercharged orchestral rhetoric that registers as ‘Wagnerian’ in any context.” KQED summarized Kim’s Wagner journey: “And can we take a moment to appreciate the gift San Francisco has in Eun Sun Kim at the podium? All the dynamism of the score comes alive under her baton.”
Eun Sun Kim remarked: “As we begin preparations for Wagner’s Ring cycle, I am honored and humbled to share in this feat with the extraordinary musicians comprising San Francisco Opera, my musical home. I am proud to join the legacy of conductors who have paved the way for me to take on this staggering project, just as I am privileged to continue forging the path for the future leaders of this enduring work. I look forward to engaging in a musical dialogue between the orchestra, voices and audience, and delving into the complex themes of human nature written on every page of Wagner’s scores that are both timeless and timely."
Critical and public acclaim for Zambello’s production has been widespread since its first presentation as a complete cycle by San Francisco Opera in 2011. The San Francisco Chronicle proclaimed, “San Francisco Opera’s most ambitious undertaking in years also turned out to be the company’s greatest triumph.” The 2018 revival introduced improvements and refinements. Opera observed, “Over the past seven years, technological advances have generated a new and often immersive series of projections by S. Katy Tucker, and have inspired modifications to Michael Yeargan’s décor,” while the San Francisco Chronicle said, “At every juncture, the human dimension of drama registers with concerted force.”
Francesca Zambello commented: “I worked on my first Ring cycle 40 years ago, and it’s been a recurring soundtrack for my life ever since, coming to mind in times of intense emotion and change. Wagner understood something about the human condition, in all its complexity, and was able to translate that into the most overwhelming musical expression imaginable. Because Wagner’s canvas is broad and universal, it has invited generations of artists to bring their own ideas to new productions. As I began to consider a new production in the early days of the 21st century, I found that American iconography offered a compelling road map for Wagner’s monumental score. I wanted to focus on humans’ historical propensity to destroy the natural world, as well as the role of women—particularly Brünnhilde—to emerge as healers. I believe that Brünnhilde is the true hero of the Ring. Her father is seeking a perfect hero, but his idea of a hero is rooted in old ideas, the same ideas that have brought about so much violence and destruction. Fifteen years later, I’m excited to dive back into the production with an extraordinary new cast headed by close colleagues Tammy, Simon and Brian, along with Eun Sun conducting her first Ring. Together, we all will discover the work anew in the rehearsal room, as each artist brings their own human experience to the task of telling this evergreen story.”
In preparation for her first Ring cycles, Kim will conduct the constituent parts of The Ring of the Nibelung leading up to June 2028. She begins the journey with the cycle’s prologue, Das Rheingold, in June 2027 and with part two, Die Walküre, in the fall of 2027. In late spring 2028, she will conduct single performances each of Siegfried and Götterdämmerung in the weeks before the full cycles begin.
The 2028 Ring cycles (with performances on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday) are scheduled for:
CYCLE 1—June 13–18, 2028 | CYCLE 2—June 20–26, 2028 | CYCLE 3—June 27–July 2, 2028
The cast for San Francisco Opera’s forthcoming Ring will be headed by a trio of exceptional Wagnerian artists. Tamara Wilson makes her Company debut as Brünnhilde, the heroine of the Ring who appears in Die Walküre, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung. The GRAMMY® Award winning soprano appears this season in the new production premieres of Die Walküre and Siegfried at Opéra National de Paris.
Brian Mulligan, who recently earned praise as Telramund in Lohengrin and Amfortas in Parsifal with the Company, performs Wotan. The American baritone has performed the role in Das Rheingold, Die Walküre and Siegfried in Europe and Asia, but will perform the full cycle for the first time in San Francisco. Mulligan is no stranger to Zambello’s production, having appeared in the 2018 performances as Donner (Das Rheingold) and Gunther (Götterdãmmerung).
New Zealand tenor Simon O’Neill is one of the world’s leading heldentenors. O’Neill starred in the title roles of Wagner’s Lohengrin and Tristan und Isolde under the baton of Eun Sun Kim in recent seasons. In the Ring, he will portray Siegfried, the hero in Siegfried and Götterdämmerung.
Additional casting will be announced at a later date.
TICKET INFORMATION
Tickets for the 2028 Ring cycles will go on sale October 13, 2026 for Ring Circle members—a group of supporters who are invited to make a contribution at levels beginning at $7,500 and who will enjoy special benefits leading up to and during the cycles—along with subscribers and donors at some levels. Ring cycle packages will go on sale to the general public in July 2027. Tickets for the non-cycle performances of Das Rheingold will be available to subscribers when the Company’s 2026–27 Season is announced in early 2026. Tickets for non-cycle performances of Die Walküre in fall 2027 and the one-off performances of Siegfried and Götterdämmerung in spring 2028 will be available when the Company’s 2027–28 is announced in early 2027.
As in prior presentations of the Ring, the Company will offer a variety of community programs and ancillary events around the cycles including lectures, symposia and musical performances offering opportunities for community members to delve deeper into Wagner’s epic masterpiece. More Ring Festival details will be announced at a later date.
THE RING AT SAN FRANCISCO OPERA
Scenes from San Francisco Opera’s history with the Ring: Die Walküre (1935) with Lauritz Melchior and Kirsten Flagstad; Hunding summons the vassals in Götterdämmerung (1972); the gods enter Valhalla in Das Rheingold (1985).
San Francisco Opera is among the world’s leading presenters of The Ring of the Nibelung with a storied history extending back to 1935, the Company’s 13th season, with performances featuring legendary artists Kirsten Flagstad as Brünnhilde in her first-ever complete Ring cycle, Lauritz Melchior as Siegfried and Friedrich Schorr as Wotan with Artur Bodanzky conducting. Later stagings followed in 1972 for the Company’s Golden Jubilee season, a new production by Nikolaus Lehnhoff in 1985, 1990 and 1999 and Zambello’s production in 2011 and 2018.
*For the complete press release, open the PDF version above.