Opera at the Ballpark: “Great Soprano Arrested for Possession of Thayer’s Slippery Elm?”
Posted on June 21, 2008
It is a night during which the moon rises within pie-in-your-face reach, wolves howl, Druids circle Stonehenge, a night when fans at AT&T Park in San Francisco stand to sing the Star Spangled Banner before the announcer yells: “Play Donizetti!”
Call us San Francisco “elitists” if you will, but where else will 20 thousand fans crowd the grandstand and stretched out on blankets around a baseball diamond to celebrate the Solstice with 2 hours 20 minutes of a soprano in pain. This is the second season of “Opera at the Ballpark,” the San Francisco Giants, San Francisco Opera mashup, when the AT&T Park throws open its gates for a free high definition jumbo screen telecast live from the War Memorial Opera House.
In a summer where Mike Meyers, Maxwell Smart and a karate-chopping Panda compete for box office, Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, the tragedy of a Scottish drama queen, hardly seems like entertainment for one of San Francisco’s rare hot summer nights, but unlike at least one of those movies or a Giants game, few left early over bad jokes or when Lucia’s predicament became impossible, which was almost from the start.
I may never want to dress up for a proper opera again. I was quite happy in sandals, jeans and a Hawaiian shirt, thank you. And I was thrilled about the seats at the ballpark, with enough space and legroom for a linebacker, compared to the dainty, knee scraping economy-class seats at the opera house. Not to mention the cup holders, Bud-Lite, garlic fries, all-beef hot dogs and the license to issue a discrete belch, which at the Opera House would be greeted with a wagging forefinger. My only complaint was when, during intense, dramatic passages, a huge popcorn popper behind us started up. But that was forgiven by the fresh popcorn smells that wafted from it.
There was also more athleticism in this performance than in most Giants games. In 2000, I witnessed Barry Bonds’ first home run at this park, just after it opened. Soprano Natalie Dessay probably hit opera’s first homer here last night, smashing several out into McCovey Cove. She, like Bonds, would have also performed well in the outfield. Dessay sang flawlessly while on her knees, while lying on her side and on her back. I am sure she could have dived and caught a hard line drive without missing a note.
And I have never heard of an opera steroid scandal: “Great Soprano Arrested for Possession of Thayer’s Slippery Elm.?”
» Filed Under California, Entertainment
