Opera at the Ball Park

Dear Kids,

Last night Dad and I went to the Giants' AT&T Park in San Francisco for the free simulcast of the opera, "Samson and Delilah." I'm sure it was a huge effort for the San Francisco Opera to pull off, and the opera-goers loved it. Before the performance and at each of the 25-minute intermissions they showed backstage interviews plus pre-recorded videos of the set changes. The staff of the classical music station KDFC were there in person, including an on-air personality, Dianne Nicolini, whose voice we have been hearing for years.

The 103-foot LED screen was gorgeous. We opted to sit in the lowest-level stands in chairs with backs, rather than on the grass in the outfield closer to the screen, because we knew we couldn't sit on thegrass for three hours. No lawn chairs were allowed -- only blankets. A lot of the younger opera fans chose the grass. The sound was better than I had expected. It appeared that they had brought in two huge speaker systems, which worked fairly well, except for a slight echo.

The Chronicle newspaper estimates that 15,000 people showed up. The stadium holds 41,503 people, so that sounds about right to me. There were little kids running around on the grass, and some of the teenagers were acting silly. All that wasn't as distracting as I would have thought, but I did sneak a peek at them when my eyes weren't glued to the screen.

Almost everyone had dressed for the weather. They came with blankets, cushions, hats, heavy jackets, and hand-warmer pouches. The clouds cleared, and a full moon rose over the water and up from behind the screen.

Some of the audience had been given flash cards that said, "Go Samson!"on one side, and "Go Delilah!" on the other side.

Back in the San Francisco Opera House everyone was very aware of us as we sat at the baseball stadium. At the curtain call, the principal singers took their bows while carrying baseball bats, or wearing baseball mitts. The little child who leads the blind Samson wore a baseball cap and carried a baseball.

Since we enjoy opera, and hadn't been to AT&T Park before, it seemed like an opportunity not to be missed. The opera was even more beautiful than I had remembered, and the park was even more beautiful than I had expected. The tickets were free, and there was a way to print them on-line. It is ordinarily not a good idea to drive to AT&T Park becausethe parking lot holds only 5,000 cars and the parking fee is $30. Because of that we arrived at 4:30 p.m. for the 8:00 p.m. performance. We were fortunate last night that the parking fee had been reduced to $10 for this event, and that a lot of San Franciscans arrived on public transportation, so there was room for our car in the lot. The opera ended at 11 p.m.

I'm really glad that I decided to go on this adventure, especially since it turned out so well. Would I do it again? We'll see.

Today's San Francisco Chronicle has an article and four pictures about this event on their web site for today only.

~ Mom