San Francisco Opera will debut Adams’ ‘Antony and Cleopatra’
Jan 19, 2022, 5:41 PM | Updated: 5:58 pm
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — John Adams’ version of “Antony and Cleopatra” will have its world premiere on Sept. 10 on the opening weekend of the San Francisco Opera’s 100th season.
Soprano Julia Bullock sings Cleopatra, baritone Gerald Finley will be Antony, tenor Paul Appleby will portray Caesar and music director Eun Sun Kim will conduct, the company said Wednesday.
The libretto was adapted by Adams, with additional passages from Plutarch and Virgil. Elkhanah Pulitzer directs, with sets by Mimi Lien, costumes by Constance Hoffman, lighting by David Finn and projections by Bill Morrison.
Eight performances are scheduled through Oct. 5 of the two-act work of about three hours, including one intermission. The opera will travel to Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu, Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Sicily, and New York’s Metropolitan Opera.
The new Met at Lincoln Center opened in September 1966 with the world premiere of Samuel Barber’s version of “Antony and Cleopatra” with a libretto by Franco Zeffirelli, an opera greeted with negative reviews.
San Francisco presented the premieres of Adams’ “Doctor Atomic” in 2005 and “Girls of the Golden West” in 2017. Adams’ most well-known operas are “Nixon in China” from 1987 and “The Death of Klinghoffer” from 1991.
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