The San Francisco Opera House rang with especially loud cheers Sunday afternoon July 6 as a vigorous Napa Valley contingent watched their home-town girl, the internationally acclaimed soprano Ruth Ann Swenson, awarded the San Francisco Opera Medal for 25 years of high artistic merit.

It was quite a moment, coming at the conclusion of Handel’s elaborate opera “Ariodante” in which she had just sung more than three hours of one of the most challenging of leading roles. But Ruth Ann (as she is familarly known) then became one of the official opera greats, right beside Leontyne Price, Joan Sutherland, Marilyn Horne and other illustrious award recipients.

Interestingly, it was 25 years ago to the month that young Swenson, then a starry-eyed 22-year-old native New Yorker, was accepted into San Francisco Opera’s rigorous Merola opera training program. Ruth Ann soon advanced to becoming a prestigious Adler Fellow with the Company, and then quickly went on to star in Western Opera Theater, the San Francisco Opera’s touring group.

While Swenson’s professional debut came two years later, it was not long before this soprano with the “golden tresses and the golden voice” (as critics referred to her) was in demand at all the major U.S. opera companies: Chicago, Washington, Dallas and most particularly the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.  

There soon followed requests from the famed Paris Opéra, the Royal Opera at Covent Garden, the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, and the Teatro San Carlos in Naples. Likewise leading roles were soon offered at the esteemed Salzburg Festival, the revered Berlin State Opera, and the Grand Théatre de Genève, among others.

Swenson’s supple voice coupled with note-accurate musicianship garnered her early acclaim as the teasing Dorinda in Handel’s “Orlando,” then the sassy Rosina in Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville,” the playful Adina in Donizetti’s “The Elixir of Love,” and the minx Zerlina in Mozart’s ever-popular “Don Giovanni.”

But it was also Swanson’s flawless vocal agility that brought her critical attention in the stratospheric demands of Elvira in Bellini’s “I Puritani,” the mad Lucia in Donizetti’s bel-canto masterpiece “Lucia di Lammermoor,” the extremely difficult passage-work as Zerbinetta in Richard Strauss’s romantic “Ariadne auf Naxos,” and two versions of Shakespeare’s Juliet in Gounod’s sweet-yet-tragic “Roméo et Juliette,” and Bellini’s vocally demanding “I Capuleti e i Montecchi.”

This is not to ignore Ruth Ann’s innocent Marguerite in “Faust” or her contemplative Countess in Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro” among so many others.

And then there were the recording contracts with the world’s best orchestras for the opera world’s most famous labels, including RCA Victor Red Seal, Deutsche Grammophon, and Sony Classical.

Yet it was along the way in this remarkable career that Swenson met baritone David Burnakus. The two were married, and the couple moved to the Napa Valley.

It was not long before Ruth Ann became interested in the reawakened cultural hopes of the valley, however. And she soon took the time from her many engagements to sing at several important local fundraisers, most especially those for the then-fledging Napa Valley Opera House.

“She has been such a wonderful and gracious attribute to our Valley,” commented Michael Savage, former executive director of the Opera House. “Ruth Ann has given us so much, and now happily is the recipient of this most distinguished honor.”

But just as every opera plot has its villain, so does every life have its challenges, and for Ruth Ann that was the discovery of breast cancer in 2006, momentarily putting her career on hold.

The soprano is known for having an especially happy and plucky personality, however. Or perhaps it was all those roles as besieged heroines such as Gilda, Violetta, Manon and Semele that gave her the courage that she needed. Whatever it was, she returned to the vocally demanding part of Cleopatra in Handel’s ornate opera “Giulio Cesare” a mere three weeks after her last treatment, her lustrous soprano still intact.

It was her music that gave her hope, she has since commented, and her husband and career that kept her centered.

Swenson has also been generous in thanking the many directors, conductors, coaches and casts that she has worked with over the years who she feels have been of inestimable help and have enriched her life as well as her art.

But standing onstage that Sunday afternoon at San Francisco Opera before the great gold curtain and her wildly approving audience, she quickly winked and laughed: “Well, here’s to another 25 years!”