Founded in 1923, San Francisco Opera is the oldest surviving opera company on the West Coast and a leader in arts education and innovation. It all started, according to legend, over a game of poker.
In his travels across the United States, the Neapolitan conductor Gaetano Merola had noticed that San Francisco audiences hungered for opera. Over a card game in the North Beach neighborhood, an idea took hold: Why not give San Francisco its very own resident opera company?
Merola rallied local leaders and music lovers, and soon — on September 26, 1923 — the curtain rose on a new beacon in the art world: San Francisco Opera.
Starting with that very first performance of “La Bohème,” San Francisco Opera established itself as destination for world-class talent and incomparable artistry. Artists like Leontyne Price and Birgit Nilsson would arrive to make their American stage debuts.
