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A sold-out performance of Italian composer Giacomo Puccini’s (1858–1924) Tosca was staged on opening night of the War Memorial Opera House. While the crowd reveled in the new building, a description of the festivities and Act 1 of the opera were broadcast on the radio—marking the first time that San Francisco Opera was transmitted live over the air. Onstage, the interior of the Sant’Andrea della Valle church in Rome was beautifully recreated with massive, hand-painted canvas drops. To commemorate the reopening of the War Memorial Opera House in 1997 after seismic retrofitting, San Francisco Opera commissioned Belgian set and costume designer Thierry Bosquet (b. 1937) to replicate the traditional, highly detailed 1932 Tosca set designed by Italian stage director and designer Armando Agnini (1884–1960). Tosca celebrated the reopening of the opera house again on August 21, 2021, this time after the Fall 2020 season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic—the only such pause in San Francisco Opera history. Learn more about San Francisco Opera’s history in our exhibition “San Francisco Opera: A Centennial Celebration” on display, post-security, in Harvey Milk Terminal 1 and online at: https://bit.ly/SFOperaCentennial
This image was posted on January 06, 2023.