San Francisco opera offers a new peak in drab, listless programming in their 2018-2019 “Leftovers and Stuff We Got With Coupons” gala season. 

It looks like this:

The season opens on September 7 with a double bill of Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci with Lianna Haroutounian, Ekaterina Semenchuk, Roberto Aronica, Marco Berti, Dimitri Platanias, staged by José Cura.

Then follows the “west coast premiere of San Francisco Opera co-commission” It’s a Wonderful Life by composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer.

And did I mention the rare coup of Placido Domingo singing a one-off concert?

The fall season roars into high gear with a new production of Puccini’s Tosca with Carmen Giannattasio, Brian Jagde and Scott Hendricks. Repertoire includes Roberto Devereux starring Sondra Radvanovsky, Jamie Barton, Russell Thomas and Artur Rucicski; and Arabella with superstars Ellie Dehn, Heidi Stober, Daniel Johansson and Brian Mulligan.

Comes the summer, you can revel in  Carmen with J’Nai Bridges and Matthew Polenzani; Handel’s Orlando with Sasha Cooke, Heidi Stober, Christina Gansch, David Daniels and Christian Van Horn; and of course Rusalka with Rachel Willis-Sørensen, Brandon Jovanovich, Ferruccio Furlanetto and Jamie Barton.