Celebrated for her “blend of vocal sparkle and theatrical charisma” by the San Francisco Chronicle, California native Elisa Sunshine is a newly minted graduate of San Francisco Opera’s Adler Fellowship who brings the immediacy of the human experience to life through vocal acrobatics and theatrical dynamism. She returns to San Francisco Opera during the centennial season celebration as part of Richard Strauss’s masterpiece Die Frau ohne Schatten, conducted by Sir Donald Runnicles. In addition to a recital with Ad Astra Music Festival, she is also looking excitedly ahead to covering the title character in Lyric Opera of Chicago's production of La fille du régiment, as well as representing the United States as a participant in the 2023 Queen Sonja Singing Competition in Norway.

In recent collaborations with San Francisco Opera’s Music Director Eun Sun Kim, Ms. Sunshine sang excerpts from Berg’s Lulu, Donizetti’s La fille du régiment and Lucia di Lammermoor, and Richard Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos alongside the San Francisco Opera orchestra in “The Future is Now” concert showcasing the Adler Fellows, as well as Annina in a brand new Shawna Lucey production, SFO’s first new La Traviata production since 1987. Additional San Francisco Opera highlights during her time as an Adler Fellow include her debut as the Shepherd boy in Tosca; singing Soeur Anne de la Croix and covering Constance in Olivier Py’s award-winning production of Dialogues des Carmèlites; covering Despina in Così fan tutte, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, and Amor in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice; and preparing assignments lost to the pandemic, including covering the title role in Handel’s Partenope, Gilda in Rigoletto, and Musetta in La bohème.

In concert, Ms. Sunshine made two debuts with treasured Bay Area companies in the 2021-2022 season. Led by Music Director Richard Egarr, Ms. Sunshine performed with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra as the soprano soloist in Handel's Messiah. She also performed Second Fairy in Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream in her debut with the San Francisco Symphony, under the baton of Esa-Pekka Salonen.

Ms. Sunshine made her company debut with Pensacola Opera in the winter of 2022 as the Queen of the Night in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, a role she has performed with Portland Opera To Go and as a member of the Janiec Opera Company at Brevard Music Center. Additional opera credits include Musetta with MetroWest Opera in an all-female version of Puccini’s iconic opera titled La femme bohème, Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel followed by Musetta in La bohème with Regina Opera, and Zerbinetta with Harvard’s Lowell House Opera in Richard Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos.

An avid lover of new works, Ms. Sunshine created the role of Selena in Merola Opera Program's world premiere of Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s If I Were You, where her "steady, vibrant soprano made the most of her every moment. Ms. Sunshine also mined every bit of drama out of Selena's revelatory final encounter with Diana" (Opera Today). With the Center for Contemporary Opera in New York City, she sang the role of Elizabeth Christine in Scott Wheeler’s workshop of The Sorrows of Frederick. In Boston, Ms. Sunshine performed the role of Madame White Snake in a workshop of Scott Wheeler’s Naga at New England Conservatory, and later covered the role during its world premiere at the Cutler Majestic Theater in collaboration with ArtsEmerson and Beth Morrison Projects.