For its 61st season, San Diego Opera announced today a three-show season that will feel both familiar and inviting to audiences: Leoncavallo’s “Pagliacci,” Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville” and Bizet’s “Carmen.”
Company General Director David Bennett said programming these audience favorites is part of the company’s efforts to rebuild its audience post-pandemic and attract a new generation of opera-goers.
“We’re trying to embrace composers our audience responds to and have good memories of, but who haven’t appeared here in a while,” Bennett said. “These are titles that people know, have enjoyed in the past and have done well for us, and when we asked audience ,(these were) what they wanted to see.”
Bennett said the swift-paced and unpredictable changes occurring at the federal level in Washington, D.C., has created some uncertainty for San Diego Opera patrons. But he said the company had a very successful fundraising gala earlier this month and good response to its giving campaign last fall, so he’s “cautiously feeling good” about the future.
“We’re feeling very good about our and how we’re connecting with our audience,” Bennett said. “Like everyone, we just go day by day and see how things are going. We’re in a yo-yo state right now, trying not to change things too much.
“We have expanded our learning and engagement activities and performing more, which provides an opportunity for us to connect with our community outside of what we do in the theater. We have to continue to be close and remain consistent with communication with our patrons who really are our family,” Bennett said.
The biggest news for the company is a newly signed five-year contract extension for company Principal Conductor Yves Abel, who will continue to conduct two productions each year through the 2031-32 season.
“The San Diego Opera has been one of the great joys of my artistic life,” Abel said in a statement. “Closely collaborating with David Bennett in ensuring the finest international level has been most meaningful. And our partnership with the world-class San Diego Symphony and our very own San Diego Opera Chorus has made for performances of the highest standards.”
Bennett said Abel is one of the reasons San Diego Opera offers audiences a world-class experience. The Toronto native regularly conducts both symphonies and opera productions around the world, including at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and at opera houses in London, Vienna, Italy, , Spain and beyond.
“He has an extraordinarily deft touch with the wide variety and historical periods of opera music, whether classical, baroque, or even contemporary,” Bennett said. ” The San Diego Symphony musicians love working with him, and he’s also forged a bond with San Diego audiences, from the ticket buyers who return to see him conduct to board and ers who value his friendship.”
The 2025-26 opera season will run Oct. 31 through March 29, 2026. Once again, the company will present each opera for three performances over three days. For the season-closing production of “Carmen,” the vocally-taxing roles of Carmen and Don José will be double-cast to provide those singers vocal rest between performances.
Seasons subscriptions go on sale today, with three-opera packages ranging in price from $156 to $921. Single ticket prices will range from $53 to $346, but are subject to change. All performances will be presented at the San Diego Civic Theatre. Details at sdopera.org.
‘Pagliacci’ by Ruggero Leoncavallo – Oct. 31-Nov. 2
This 1892 verismo opera is about a violent love triangle in an Italian commedia delle’arte theater company (“pagliacci” is the Italian word for clowns). Nedda, the troupe’s leading lady, is married to the jealous Canio, but she’s having an affair with Silvio. Meanwhile, another troupe member, Tonio, is also in love with Nedda. When Canio realizes before an evening performance that Nedda has betrayed him, he vows revenge as he puts on his costume and makeup, singing the famous weeping tenor aria “Vesti la giubba” (“Put on the costume”) that made Enrico Caruso and Luciano Pavarotti famous. The last time “Pagliacci” was presented in San Diego was 2015.
Canio is a signature role for tenor Jonathan Burton, who sang the role with both Pittsburgh Opera and Utah Opera in the past six months. “When you think of a voice for Canio, it’s exactly who Jonathan is,” Bennett said. The same goes for soprano Hailey Clark, who has sung the role of Nedda all over the country. Baritone Kidon Choi, who played Sharpless in SDO’s “Madama Butterfly” last season, will play Tonio. Christopher Mattaliano, the former general director of Portland Opera, will direct what Bennett describes as a “beautiful” production that he first presented in Portland. Yves Abel will conduct “Pagliacci,” which will be sung in Italian with English and Spanish supertitles projected above the stage.
‘The Barber of Seville’ by Gioachino Rossini — Feb 13-15, 2026
One of the most beloved works in the operatic canon, this 1816 opera buffa (comic opera) is based on a 1772 French play by Pierre Beaumarchais about the resourceful barber and jack-of-all-trades, Figaro. Figaro is hired by the poor student “Lindoro” (actually the wealthy Count Almaviva in disguise) to help him rescue the young woman he loves, Rosina. She is the ward of the controlling doctor Bartolo, who plans to marry her himself for her dowry. The opera feature some of the most famous bel canto arias in operatic history, particularly Figaro’s hyper-speed ing of his many skills, “Largo al factotum,” which most people may as the “Fi-ga-ro, Fi-ga-ro” aria.
Veteran opera director Chuck Hudson will direct “Barber,” which will feature sets and costumes built by San Diego Opera. Baritone Dean Murphy will play the title role, a part he has performed in Denmark, and Switzerland. Tenor Minghao Liu will play Count Almaviva. Bass-baritone Craig Colclough will play the elderly music teacher Don Basilio, and Patrick Carfizzi will reprise the role of Bartolo, a part he has sung all over the world.
Mezzo-soprano Stephanie Doche, who played Suzuki in SDO’s “Madama Butterfly” last season, will star as Rosina. She played the same role last year with Indianapolis Opera and Salt Marsh Opera in Connecticut. Bennett said he first saw Doche perform several years ago with San Diego’s Opera Neo and she has since become a specialist in Rossini and Handel roles.
Yves Abel will conduct the opera, which will be sung in Italian with English and Spanish supertitles projected above the stage.
‘Carmen’ by Georges Bizet — May 27-29, 2026
French composer Bizet was 36 when he died on June 3, 1875, just three months after the disastrous premiere of “Carmen.” At the time, audiences found the opera’s subject matter shockingly violent and scandalous. It would become a global hit within a decade, but its initial failure likely hastened Bizet’s demise. “Carmen” is another violent love triangle story, but this time set in Spain. Don José is an inexperienced soldier who falls in love with the seductive Gypsy, Carmen, who talks him into helping her escape from jail and ing a band of smugglers. When she leaves Don José for the dashing bullfighter Escamillo, he vows revenge.
The role of Carmen will be double-cast with two mezzo-sopranos, Melody Wilson on May 27 and 29 and San Diego’s own Guadalupe Paz on May 28. Bennett said the -based Wilson “is a phenomenal singer with a big voice” and Paz has appeared with San Diego Opera several times, including most recently as Frida Kahlo in 2022’s “El último sueño de Frida y Diego.”
Tenor Thomas Kinch will play Don José on May 27 and 29, and tenor Jonathan Kaufman will play the role on May 28. Kinch is an Adler Fellow with San Francisco Opera and has sung Don José a few times before. And Bennett said Kaufman has a “big robust voice.” Ukrainian-American baritone Aleksey Bogdanov will play Escamillo and American soprano Lydia Grindatto will play Micaëla, Don José’s hometown girlfriend.
Louis Lohraseb will conduct the San Diego Symphony. The show’s director has not been announced. “Carmen” will be sung in French with English and Spanish supertitles projected above the stage.
