Bringing the Opera to the People and the People to the Opera - An Exhibit

image source: San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection

The San Francisco Opera Company is currently celebrating its Centennial 2022-2023 season.  The Art, Music and Recreation and the San Francisco History Center have joined forces to join in the festivities with the exhibit "Bringing the Opera to the People and the People to the Opera" that runs from September 10, 2022 through January 12, 2023.

Opera is an enterprise that requires considerable resources. While the glamour of the opera often rests on imported star power, companies like the San Francisco Opera draw upon the community to realize its performances and to create a dynamic social scene that nourishes the opera company. This display exhibition shows the ways that the San Francisco Opera plays a role in the community beyond the opera house walls. 

The exhibit highlights local talent that can be who tend to be overshadowed by the great divas and divos of opera stage. It also spotlights a mid-century view of a night at the San Francisco Opera including fashion, balls, Opera Guild’s Fol-de-Rol. 

Bringing the Opera to the People and the People to the Opera features photographs and ephemera from the collections of San Francisco Public Library’s Art, Music & Recreation Center and San Francisco History Center.

image source: San Francisco Programs. Music [scrapbook].

School age children attending the opera in 1948.