Opera sets the stage for building passion through the integration of all art forms - visual art, music, dance, theater, and the literary arts.

Rooftop students will experience the excitement of opera, up close and personal, with in-school performances by the Adler Fellows, visits to the Opera’s scene shop, and classroom visits by a SF Opera’s teaching artist.  Students will learn more about what goes in to making an opera — libretto writing, musical composition, set and costume design, and production design —  in order to create and stage their own mini-operas.

The school community will be introduced to some of opera’s greatest innovators and three works of art that have stood the test of time.

On September 26, 1923, the citizens of San Francisco were first introduced to the world of opera when GAETANO MEROLA (1881-2953) raised his baton at the Civic Auditorium for the Opera’s first production, Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème.  Now, 86 years later, San Franciscans come to the War Memorial Opera House to collective enjoy the passion and beauty of opera, an art form that requires hundreds of people, on stage and behind the scenes, working together at the highest levels of creativity to make a performance soar.

Season after season, SAN FRANCISCO OPERA has thrilled audiences with glorious music and many memorable productions, but perhaps the Opera’s greatest contribution to the art form is the company’s commitment to the future of opera.  The SAN FRANCISCO OPERA CENTER, is renowned for the company’s role in training some of the most talented young singers who come from around the world to study in San Francisco.

Each year, the Opera puts out the call for auditions, and over 800 young singers from all across the world come in hopes of being select for the Opera Center’s MEROLA OPERA PROGRAM.  And each year, a small, select group of singers and accompanists are invited continue on at the Opera to become ADLER FELLOWS.

This season, past Adler Fellows Patricia Racette, Mary Dunleavy, Mark Delavan and conductor Patrick Summers return to the Opera House state.  They are among the many outstanding artists who have gone on to world acclaim after their training here at San Francisco Opera.

Click here to learn how your family can enjoy Opera at the Ballpark for free.