“Take me out to the opera
Take me out with the crowd
Find me a seat at the Opera House
I don’t care if its Mozart or Strauss…”
I attended an event on Friday at AT&T park, the stadium where the Giants play in San Francisco, and felt like I was living in a developer’s artist rendering. I can imagine (have, unfortunately not done the research) that the stadium and the surrounding stores, businesses, office towers, and housing (what they call “mixed uses” in the biz) were planned and built around public transportation hubs in an attempt to create a good, vibrant neighborhood of yuppies’ apartments with some feel-good affordable units, a place where people would come for the entertainment at the stadium and stay for the food and retail outside. If my speculations are correct, the free simulcast opera presentation I saw at the stadium was that urban planner’s dream fully realized.
We took Muni and walked along the housing and retail corridor to the park, where literally thousands had gathered to watch Lucia di Lamermoor on the panoramic jumbotron. The actual opera was being presented in the San Francisco Opera House. It was free, but hundreds lined up at the concession stands for the overpriced garlic fries. I didn’t make up the above lyrics, either — a news anchor from the local station led us all in song during intermission, (um, the 7th inning stretch?)
Lest you think I’m being too cynical about this experience, I’ll have you know I had a great time. The outfield’s plush grass was a patchwork of picnics and the many of the bleachers were packed. Every now and then, you’d hear someone murmur a plot detail to a friend who had fallen down on subtitle-reading duties. The sun was setting as the plot became more somber. The cooing couples and young families lounging on the grass were definitely a change from the park’s usual beer-guzzling clientele. But of course, being in the stadium meant we didn’t have to follow the rules of an opera house.
“Don’t do it, Lucia!” someone shouted, as the protagonist signed the marriage license that sealed her awful fate.
