Orchestra strike forces San Francisco Opera to cancel opening night

San Francisco Opera was forced to cancel the opening performance of its 104th season on Saturday after members of its orchestra went on strike amid a continuing dispute over a new contract.

The September 12 performance of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra, conducted by Music Director Eun Sun Kim, was called off less than an hour before its scheduled 8 p.m. curtain at the War Memorial Opera House. The musicians announced that they were going on strike after negotiations failed to produce an agreement.

The cancellation marks a dramatic escalation in a labour dispute that has been developing for several weeks. The orchestra’s previous collective bargaining agreement expired on July 31, and the musicians and the company have been negotiating since May.

The orchestra had warned in late August that it would not perform on opening night without a new agreement. The company subsequently postponed its annual Opera Ball, originally scheduled to accompany the September 12 season opener, until November 12.

Sunday’s Opera in the Park, the company’s annual free concert in Golden Gate Park, has also been cancelled because of the strike. No other performances have been cancelled at this stage.

At the centre of the dispute are disagreements over compensation and the size of San Francisco Opera’s season. The musicians say management initially proposed a 26 per cent pay cut, later reduced to 20 per cent. The company has described its latest proposal differently, saying it would restructure compensation while maintaining musicians’ annual earnings at current levels over a five-year period.

San Francisco Opera says it is facing an annual structural deficit of approximately $15 million and argues that the orchestra’s existing employment model was designed for a larger volume of performances than the company can currently sustain. The musicians, meanwhile, contend that repeated reductions in the number of performances have failed to resolve the Opera’s financial difficulties and are seeking greater stability and compensation that keeps pace with San Francisco’s cost of living.

The strike has also raised questions over the position of Music Director Eun Sun Kim. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, two orchestra musicians said Kim told players at a private meeting on Thursday that she would resign in solidarity with them if they went on strike. The Opera confirmed that Kim had expressed solidarity with the musicians, the newspaper reported, but no resignation has been announced.

Kim has served as San Francisco Opera’s Music Director since 2021, and her contract currently runs through the 2030–31 season.

The next scheduled performance of Simon Boccanegra is on September 17, leaving the continuation of the production — and the beginning of the company’s 2026–27 season — dependent on developments in the labour dispute.