Father's Day at the Opera

We did indeed have a lovely time at the San Francisco Opera today.

It appears that most opera sets are minimalist these days, but always with clever touches. Today's set was painted entirely in blackboard paint. The 16 dancers followed Iphigenie out onto the stage and the next thing you know they had written her name across the back wall in wide, nicely formed chalk letters. It appeared that two dancers worked on eachletter together, and they could write fast ! As Iphigenie sang about her family, they wrote the name of her father, Agamemnon, on the left wall, and the name of her mother, Clytemnestre, on the right wall. Then they threw sponges full of water at her parents' names, obliterating them because they had been killed by family members. Water was used to represent blood, and they wrote the name of her brother, Orestes, on the blackboard floor with water. His name evaporated as the act went on, asher hopes of ever seeing him again evaporated. (She sings that he is"our only hope." Sounded like a line from Star Wars.)

Orestes arrived as a prisoner, but she didn't recognize him because they hadn't seen each other in years. The dancers as a group lifted him up,and helped him walk along the wall as if he did that every day of theweek. (Sort of a Spiderman thing.)

We were sitting in the Dress Circle in the upstairs balcony. At the end of the opera, the Goddess Diana came in through the side door and sang from that very balcony, and not all that far away from us ! Were we ever surprised . . . and pleased!

As the opera came to a happy and optimistic close, the side walls of the set rose up about a foot, letting a bright white light shine in wherethere had been only depressing darkness before.

Iphigenie was sung by Susan Graham, who sang beautifully and continuously. She just sang and sang and sang, filling the room with herlovely voice. She and the dancers were barefoot, and all had long brown wavy hair and wore simple black dresses. They looked identical. The men wore black pants, black shirts, and black shoes. The city officials woreblack coats that made them look a lot like the guys in the Matrix.

We always enjoy dinner at "Indigo." The restaurant is on McAllister between Gough and Franklin. It is a fairly small restaurant, but the food is gourmet. They have chefs in the kitchen, not cooks. Yum!

Love,
Mom