San Francisco Opera will present Richard Wagner’s monumental Der Ring des Nibelungen in June and July 2028, with three full cycles conducted by Music Director Eun Sun Kim and staged by Francesca Zambello in her acclaimed American-themed production.
A new chapter in a Wagnerian tradition.
The announcement was made at the Diane B. Wilsey Center for Opera by General Director Matthew Shilvock, Music Director Eun Sun Kim, and director Francesca Zambello, joined by baritone Brian Mulligan, who will sing Wotan.
The Ring cycle—Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung—will be performed over the course of a week in each of three runs: 13–18 June, 20–26 June, and 27 June–2 July 2028. Leading up to those cycles, Kim will conduct the individual operas separately: Das Rheingold in June 2027, Die Walküre in the autumn of that year, and Siegfried and Götterdämmerung in spring 2028.
Eun Sun Kim’s first full Ring
Eun Sun Kim will lead Wagner’s tetralogy for the first time, extending her multi-season exploration of the composer’s music at San Francisco Opera. Since 2023, she has conducted Lohengrin, Tristan und Isolde and Parsifal, earning wide critical praise for her clarity, pacing and sense of drama. The 2028 Ring marks a new milestone both for her and for the company’s orchestra, which will again tackle one of the most demanding scores in the repertory.
Zambello’s production returns
Zambello’s production—first unveiled in 2011 and last seen in 2018—is a co-production with Washington National Opera. Set within a landscape of American industrial and environmental imagery, it casts the gods and heroes as reflections of human ambition and ecological decline. For the director, Brünnhilde emerges as the true hero of the cycle: a figure of compassion and renewal in contrast to her father’s destructive vision.
Cast
The company’s 2028 Ring will feature:
– Tamara Wilson as Brünnhilde, marking her San Francisco Opera debut;
– Brian Mulligan as Wotan, returning after roles in Lohengrin and Parsifal;
– Simon O’Neill as Siegfried, following his recent collaborations with Kim in Lohengrin and Tristan und Isolde.
Additional casting will be announced at a later date.
A legacy renewed
San Francisco Opera’s connection with the Ring dates back to 1935, when Kirsten Flagstad and Lauritz Melchior appeared under Artur Bodanzky. Later stagings followed in 1972, 1985, 1990 and 1999, before Zambello’s production brought the work into the twenty-first century. The 2028 cycles aim to reaffirm that heritage for a new generation.
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