San Francisco Opera opens its 103rd season on Friday, September 5 with Opera Ball, the opening night benefit gala co-presented with San Francisco Opera Guild, and Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto (September 5–27), led by Caroline H. Hume Music Director Eun Sun Kim.
The story of Rigoletto centers around the titular jester who hurls insults at courtiers for the amusement of the Duke of Mantua. At home, Rigoletto is a loving, protective father to a daughter he keeps hidden from the depraved world at court. When one of the targets of Rigoletto’s cruelty curses him, tragic repercussions follow. The fast-paced action of Verdi’s score, filled with turbulent drama and memorable tunes, like the aria “La donna è mobile,” made the opera a breakout hit in 1851.
Rigoletto, which remains one of the composer’s most popular works, marks the beginning of Verdi’s “middle period,” a time when he produced a series of classics in rapid succession, including Il Trovatore (1853), La Traviata (1853) and Un Ballo in Maschera (1859).
Eun Sun Kim, noted for bringing “tonal muscle and stylistic variety” (San Francisco Chronicle) to her performances of Verdi, adds Rigoletto to her initiative to conduct major works by Verdi and Richard Wagner in San Francisco every season.
Later this fall, Kim leads San Francisco Opera’s free Opera in the Park concert at Golden Gate Park on September 7, a new production of Wagner’s Parsifal (October 25–November 13) and a one-night-only concert featuring Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and music by Spanish composer Manuel de Falla (November 1). Later in the upcoming season, Kim conducts Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s Elektra (June 7–27, 2026) for the first time.