San Francisco, CA (December 20, 2022) — SFO Museum at San Francisco International Airport recently unveiled a new exhibition in connection with San Francisco Opera’s centennial titled San Francisco Opera: A Centennial Celebration. The curated installation in the Harvey Milk Terminal 1 (located post-security in Departures Level 2) showcases the Company’s first century and the art of operatic stagecraft.

The exhibition, on view through August 13, 2023, captures San Francisco Opera’s rich history through a selection of costumes, stage props, set models, video and archival photographs from the collections of San Francisco Opera, the Museum of Performance + Design and the Metropolitan Opera Archives.

Costumes worn by operatic superstars who have graced San Francisco Opera’s stage during the past century are the focus of the presentation. Highlights include:

-The cape and hat worn by famed Italian tenor Beniamino Gigli in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette during San Francisco Opera’s inaugural 1923 season.

-Legendary Norwegian soprano Kirsten Flagstad’s Brünnhilde costume from Richard Wagner’s Die Walküre in the 1935 Company premiere of the composer’s four-opera cycle, The Ring of the Nibelung.

-The military outfit worn by French soprano Lily Pons in Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment during the 1940s.

-A dress from Massenet’s Manon worn by soprano and inaugural recipient of the Company’s Opera Medal, Dorothy Kirsten.

-American soprano Leontyne Price’s costume from the 1981 production of Verdi’s Aida. An iconic interpreter of the title role, Price sang her first Aida with San Francisco Opera in 1957.

Additional costumes from productions of Tosca, Un Ballo in Maschera, Tannhäuser and Rigoletto reflect the work of designers Thierry Bosquet, John Conklin, Paul Brown and Constance Hoffman.

SFO Museum’s Curator of Exhibits Daniel Calderon said: “SFO Museum is delighted to feature the history of San Francisco Opera during the Company’s Centennial Season. San Francisco Opera is such an important cultural and artistic institution, and their story is both local and international. With their support, along with loans from the Museum of Performance + Design and the Metropolitan Opera Archives, SFO Museum has assembled a vibrant exhibition of costumes, photographs and artifacts that span almost a century of opera history. We know the exhibition will spur the interest of our traveling public and hope it will make new opera fans in the coming months.”

San Francisco Opera’s Director of Archives Barbara Rominski said: “Working with Daniel Calderon and the entire SFO Museum team has been rewarding on so many fronts, not least for the opportunity to share our archival collections with the airport’s enormous daily audience. Whether travelers have only a few seconds to spend with the exhibits or a long layover to really dive in, these remarkable garments and artifacts have a way of inspiring wonder at the creative possibility of this lively art form.”

San Francisco Opera: A Centennial Celebration is located post-security in Harvey Milk Terminal 1 (Departures Level 2) at San Francisco International Airport. The free exhibition can be seen by all travelers using Terminal 1 or through appointment by emailing [email protected]. For more information and to view the Exhibition Image Gallery, visit sfomuseum.org/exhibitions/san-francisco-opera-centennial.

To learn more about the history of San Francisco Opera and listen to historic performances from the Company’s first 100 years, visit Streaming the First Century, the Company’s free online hub for historic recordings and interviews at sfopera.com/firstcentury. For complete San Francisco Opera cast and repertory information, visit archive.sfopera.com

ABOUT SAN FRANCISCO OPERA
On September 26, 1923, Gaetano Merola inaugurated his new resident company for the opera-loving metropolis of San Francisco with a performance of Puccini’s La Bohème at the Civic Auditorium. A century later, San Francisco Opera remains a vital and dynamic artistic institution. Its culture of innovation has led to pioneering uses of technology and repertory-expanding new works by leading composers; its audience has witnessed the American debuts of operatic legends; and its training programs have equipped generations of new artists for stages around the world. San Francisco Opera celebrates its centennial with events and activities throughout the 2022–23 Season. Learn more at sfopera.com/100.

San Francisco Opera is sponsored, in part, by Norby Anderson, Jerome L. and Thao N. Dodson, The Dolby Family, Carol and Dixon Doll, Bertie Bialek Elliott, Peter Fenton and Kate Greer, Keith and Priscilla Geeslin, Gordon Getty, John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn, Burgess and Elizabeth Jamieson, Franklin and Catherine Johnson, Edmund W. and Jeannik Méquet Littlefield Fund,  Steven M. Menzies, Bernard and Barbro Osher, Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem, Dianne and Tad Taube, Phyllis C. Wattis Endowment Funds, Diane B. Wilsey, and Barbara A. Wolfe.

Historic Exhibitions and Streaming the First Century are two of our many Innovation Programs made possible, in part, by the Creative Edge Fund with major support from founding funders Carol and Dixon Doll, Peter Fenton and Kate Greer, and Bob Ellis. Additional support for Streaming the First Century provided by Julie Dickson.

Innovation Program sponsorships are available. If interested in learning more or making a gift, please contact Chief Philanthropy Officer Lisa Bury at [email protected] or (415) 551-6226.

San Francisco Opera is supported, in part, by a grant from Grants for the Arts.