World premiere production!

San Francisco Opera present the World Premiere production of this brand new opera from John Adams and Peter Sellars that evokes the optimism, joy, violence and beauty of the Gold Rush. Based on journals, newspaper reports, memoirs and poetry from the time, Girls of the Golden West entwines the stories of three women in a small mining town on the frontier the new world as they witness the dreams of prospectors from all over the world flourish or fail against the harsh nature of the reality they discover, leading the beginnings of the Wild West.

Largely inspired by the narrative left by Louise Amelia Knapp Smith Clappe (under the nom de plume Dame Shirley), a doctor's wife and her depiction of the harsh nature of life dictated by avarice and hope Girls of the Golden West is a provocative and thrilling look at a tumultuous period in California's history and will delight fans of Twain, Deadwood, Westworld and more.