“I can trace straight lines from my experiences as a music student that shaped my way and eventually led me back to San Francisco, so it really does feel like full-circle for me,” Kalb said. It is somewhat of a homecoming for Kalb, who graduated from SFCM in 2009. The performance is part of SF Opera’s centennial season which promises to honor the first 100 years while envisioning a bold future. “Told through a surreal and magical lense, the opera bridges the real, and magical realism, with both Frida, Diego, Catrina, and a set of other colorful characters,” said Kalb. Kalb will conduct Gabriela Lena Frank and playwright Nilo Cruz’s “El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego” (The Last Dream of Frida and Diego), a work exploring Frida Kahlo’s love affair with Diego Rivera set against the backdrop of Day of the Dead celebrations. Kalb calls it a humbling experience, “I feel so fortunate to do what I love, and to be able to come back to SF Opera to conduct feels like a great accomplishment, and gives me huge motivation to keep honing my craft,” Kalb continued, “I hope this is the bridge to more operas in Spanish being done at SFO, and opera companies world-wide.” In doing so, the composer will make history by conducting the first Spanish language work ever to be performed on the SF Opera stage. Now years later, Kalb will be returning to that same stage he first saw a student, but this time as a performer. We stood in the standing room area, (and) I fell in love, instantly, with opera,” Kalb continued, “After that, I basically went to every single SFO production during my student years in San Francisco.” My dear friend Derek David insisted that we go to the opera. The first time Roberto Kalb saw a live opera was at the SF Opera, while he was a student at SFCM, “It is one of my favorite memories. Both in productions and for the musicians on stage. Conductor and SFCM alumnus Roberto Kalb will take to the podium to conduct the first Spanish language work in San Francisco Opera’s history.Ī season of firsts is coming to the San Francisco Opera stage.

Sf opera homecoming