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San Francisco Opera

The WFMT Radio Network continues the 2016 American Opera Series with ten performances by San Francisco Opera. This year’s series features Wagner’s comic masterpiece Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Verdi’s Luisa Miller and Don Carlo, and a magnificent 1982 archival recording of Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites, featuring Leontyne Price and Régine Crespin.
 
San Francisco Opera was founded by Italian conductor and pianist Gaetano Merola, who presented the Company’s first season in 1923 at the Civic Center Auditorium. In 1932, the Beaux Arts 3,100 seat War Memorial Opera House opened and remains the home of San Francisco Opera. Maestro Merola, who led the Company until his death in 1953, was succeeded as general director by Kurt Herbert Adler (1953–81), Terry McEwen (1982–88), Lotfi Mansouri (1988–2001), Pamela Rosenberg (2001–05), and David Gockley (2006–2016).