Events › San Francisco Opera Guild: Das Rheingold preview

Join us for a 90-minute preview and presentation by Simon Williams of the San Francisco Opera's upcoming performance of Das Rheingold by Richard Wagner.

Glowing in the depths of the Rhine River lies magical gold, protected by three Rhinemaidens. Forsaking love, the mercenary Nibelung Alberich steals the treasure and forges a ring of immense power. When Wotan needs to pay the Giants for the building of Valhalla, he sets out to steal the gold from Alberich. These thefts set in motion an upending of world order, the repercussions of which not even Wotan can foresee. Das Rheingold heralds the beginning of Wagner’s heroic tetralogy: The Ring of the Nibelung. Continuing her multi-year exploration of Wagner, Music Director Eun Sun Kim takes on this celebrated epic, leading the San Francisco Opera Orchestra into the dawn of The Ring. Francesca Zambello’s visionary production brings Wagner’s timeless story close to home and into the 19th-century Gold Rush. Das Rheingold is the prologue to Wagner’s most dramatic work, which will take the stage in three full cycles in June 2028.

Prof. Simon Williams, emeritus professor in the Department of Theater and Dance at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an active director of both opera and spoken drama, is internationally recognized as an authority on the history of acting and Shakespearean performance, on opera as drama, and on the history of operatic staging. He has lectured worldwide on Wagner, served for several years as lecturer for English-speaking audiences at the Bayreuth Festival, and has spoken on a wide range of operas at both opera houses and opera guilds worldwide. He has authored four books on German theater (two of them on Wagner) as well as serving as co-editor of the first English-language History of German Theatre, chief editor of the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Stage Actors and Acting, and co-editor of the forthcoming (2026) Cambridge Encyclopedia of Stage Directors and Directing.

Registration means you will receive a reminder email the day before but registration is not required.