On Tuesday at the Dianne and Tad Taube Atrium Theater, San Francisco Opera announced the dates and, excitingly, three of the leading singers for their next production of Der Ring des Nibelungen, Richard Wagner’s four-opera epic.
San Francisco will stage Francesca Zambello’s Ring for the third time in 2028 with three cycles running June 13-18, June 20-26, and June 27-July 2. Zambello will return to direct the production.
After Eun Sun Kim became music director of the San Francisco Opera, the company announced that she would lead a series of Wagner’s operas, culminating in the Ring. Kim has triumphed the past three seasons with Wagner, conducting Lohengrin, Tristan and Isolde, and Parsifal to great acclaim.
General Director Matthew Shilvock commented in a press release that “San Francisco is a city with an extraordinary Wagnerian tradition… I am profoundly grateful to Eun Sun Kim for the journey she is now taking us on, building a new chapter in that storied Wagnerian history. The current triumph she is having with Parsifal is a thrilling indication of what is to come in 2028.”
At the announcement event, Kim discussed the order she and the company had chosen for performing Wagner’s operas leading up the Ring, noting that Lohengrin was composed before the cycle, Tristan when Wagner was about half-way through Siegfried, and Parsifal after the Ring. “We have been circling around the Ring,” the conductor noted.
In the press release, Kim said “As we begin preparations for Wagner’s Ring cycle, I am honored and humbled to share in this feat with the extraordinary musicians comprising San Francisco Opera, my musical home. I am proud to join the legacy of conductors who have paved the way for me to take on this staggering project, just as I am privileged to continue forging the path for the future leaders of this enduring work.”
These Ring cycles will feature longtime company member baritone Brian Mulligan as Wotan, King of the Gods; soprano Tamara Wilson as Brünnhilde, Wotan’s Valkyrie daughter; and tenor Simon O’Neill as Siegfried, Wotan’s grandson and Brünnhilde’s lover. The rest of the cast will be announced in the future. “You can try to bribe us to provide the cast list, but it won’t work,” joked Shilvock during the announcement event.
All three of these artists have performed with Kim before, and all had high praise for the conductor.
Mulligan told SFCV that Kim’s confidence and knowledge are hallmarks of her conducting. “There’s a delicacy in her conducting that makes the huge moments even bigger.”
The baritone, who made his San Francisco Opera debut in 2008 and has appeared in more than a dozen leading roles at the house, will sing his first complete Wotan in the 2028 Ring. He’s currently appearing as Amfortas in Parsifal, with Kim conducting, and sang Donner and Gunther in the 2018 Ring under former music director Donald Runnicles.
“I adore making music with her,” said O’Neill over Zoom from Sydney, Australia, where he’s in rehearsals for Siegfried. “I feel that we have a really great rapport on stage.” The tenor, who sang the title roles in Lohengrin and Tristan and Isolde, also mentioned Kim’s command of German, saying that “it does contribute to the conducting of the work, to have that inner, very detailed knowledge of the text.”
This season, Tamara Wilson is singing Brünnhilde in Calixto Bieito’s new Walküre and Siegfried productions at the Opéra national de Paris. She’ll sing the same role in complete Ring cycles there in the 2026-2027 season. Mulligan and O’Neill will also appear in those performances, as Alberich and Loge, respectively.
The soprano sang the title role of Turandot with Kim, and said of Kim over Zoom from Paris, “She’s so lovely, and such a great musician. I’m looking forward to doing this with her specifically, because I know she'll have a lot of really cool ideas.”
In advance of the 2028 Ring cycles, Kim will conduct Das Rheingold in June, 2027, and Die Walküre in the fall of 2027. (The latter performances will be Wilson’s San Francisco debut.) These will be regular subscription performances, and tickets will be available when the 2026-2027 and 2027-2028 seasons are announced. In the spring of 2028, Kim will lead single performances of Siegfried and Götterdämmerung.
Ticket prices for the full Ring haven’t been announced yet, but they’ll go on sale on October 13, 2026 for subscribers and donors. Ring packages will go on sale to the general public in July, 2027. During the performances, there will be an array of lectures, symposia, and other public events.
The 2028 Ring will cost about $15 million over the usual costs of an operatic season at SF Opera, and fundraising efforts are underway.
