Elisa Sunshine

Celebrated for her “blend of vocal sparkle and theatrical charisma” by the San Francisco Chronicle, American soprano Elisa Sunshine is a recent graduate of San Francisco Opera’s Adler Fellowship. In the 2025-2026 season, she returned to San Francisco Opera in a double appearance as the Page and Gilda cover in Rigoletto and a Flower Maiden and Squire in Parsifal, both conducted by Music Director Eun Sun Kim, as well as her Seattle Opera, Portland Opera, and San Diego Opera debuts as Lucy in Fellow Travelers. She also debuted with The Santa Fe Symphony for Handel’s Messiah and looks excitedly ahead to future collaborations with The Santa Fe Opera, the Sag Harbor Song Festival, and the Santa Rosa Symphony.

In the 2024-2025 season, Sunshine returned to the Lyric Opera of Chicago to cover Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro and Gilda in Rigoletto and made debuts with The Atlanta Opera as Iris in Semele and Boston Symphony Orchestra as Juliette in Die tote Stadt, garnering critical acclaim for Iris as “the most delightful singer of the evening” for her “superb technique and Mozartean timbre. She will excel in leading roles”

(OperaWire). Sunshine joined The Santa Fe Opera as an Apprentice Artist in 2024, marking her company debut as Annina in a new production of La Traviata and covering Sheila in the world premiere of The Righteous.

In previous seasons, Sunshine covered Marie in Laurent Pelly’s sparkling production of La fille du régiment with Lyric Opera of Chicago and won third prize in The Dallas Opera’s 2024 National Vocal Competition. San Francisco Opera’s centennial season celebration saw Sunshine return as part of Richard Strauss’s masterpiece Die Frau ohne Schatten, conducted by Sir Donald Runnicles. In concert, Sunshine has made debuts with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra for Handel’s Messiah, led by Music Director Richard Egarr, and with the San Francisco Symphony under the baton of Esa-Pekka Salonen for Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.