The story of the Italian American community in the founding of the San Francisco Opera is front and center in “Bravo  — Celebrating San Francisco Opera, Its Italian Roots and Legacy” at the Museo Italo Americano at Fort Mason.

As the company celebrates its 2022-2023 centennial season, the life and career of Neapolitan conductor Gaetano Merola, the opera’s first maestro and founder, gets a timely revisit in this original exhibition, co-created with the Museum of Performance and Design. Prior to the founding of San Francisco Opera in 1922, the art form already had a strong fanbase in the city dating back to the Gold Rush.