Two operas overlap at the War Memorial Opera House this week. Massenet's Manon, conducted by music director Eun Sun Kim in Vincent Boussard's production, runs through Sunday, Nov. 1. It is sung in French with English supertitles, runs 3 hours 25 minutes, and tickets start at $30.
Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro opens Saturday, Oct. 31, at 7:30 p.m. It uses the late Michael Cavanagh's 2019 production, which moves the story to an American manor house. Opera San José general director Shawna Lucey directs the revival, and German conductor Sebastian Weigle makes his company debut.
The cast: Slovak bass Peter Kellner (Figaro) and soprano Slávka Zámečníková (Susanna), who are married offstage; former Adler Fellow Olivia Smith (Countess); British baritone Thomas Mole (Count); and Simone McIntosh (Cherubino). Catherine Cook returns as Marcellina, a role she has sung in all five of the company's previous productions since 1998.
Dates: Oct. 31 and Nov. 3, 7, 10, 13, 18 and 27 at 7:30 p.m.; Nov. 15, 21 and 29 at 2 p.m. The Nov. 7 performance will be livestreamed. In 1936, Figaro became the first Mozart opera San Francisco Opera staged.