I was at the War Memorial Opera House on a Saturday before noon a week ago. If you say it was too early for the Opera, you are absolutely right. I was not there to see an official performance.The San Francisco Opera had their second Community Open House in celebration of their 91st Season and the National Opera Week. It was for free so I went to take a look. One of the highlights for me was seeing a couple of short scenes from The Barber of Seville and I saw the scenes not from one Box Seat view but from four different Box Seats. It was awesome!
Just to give you a background, the San Francisco Opera performs at the beautiful War Memorial Opera House on Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco. The opera season starts around September and opens with the glittery Gala event. The season ends in December. The San Francisco Ballet shares the venue half of the year and starts the holiday season with The Nutcracker.
My many trips to the War Memorial Opera House were made memorable by watching opera performances as well as ballet performances from the Balcony section. I've only sat once in the Orchestra a long time ago to see The Nutcracker.
I found out about this Community Open House event from the San Francisco Opera's Facebook page. After reading the description of what the community open house was about, I became curious if the Box Seats areas will be accesible to the public during the event. The Box Seats are probably the most expensive section of the opera house.
The open house started early because they had special events for kids. The adult event started before 12 noon. As soon as I got to the opera house lobby, I immediately asked one of the ushers if the Box Sections are open to the public. I also asked if taking pictures are allowed . Both questions were answered with reasounding Yeses and I was handed an open house programme. I was not surprised at all to see a lot of people. They were probably there with the same goals as I.
By quickly scanning the open house programme, I noticed that the events are timed. There were arts and crafts, video shows, costume photo booths, combat scene workshops, and wig and makeup demonstations. My favorites were the orchestra, soloist and chorus demos and sing-along. The demos allowed me to sort of deconstruct the opera and to listen to each part. That was nice!
I took the photo below during the chorus demo and sing-along. We sang along March from Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte but the words were in English. The Chorus first sang several times to show us how to sing the part. Afterward, they walked down from the stage and sat next to the audience to sing with us. That was fun!
I took the photo below during the orchestra musical demonstrations. This is where I started walking around and sat in sections where I haven't sat before. This view is from the left section of View Orchestra. Now I know why this section is named that way because the actual orchestra can be clearly seen from there.
The view of the opera house from the View Orchestra is awesome!
I started moving upstairs to the Box Seats. There were mannequins dressed up in Opera costumes by the Box Section doors.
The photo below is the view from Box Seat H. The view is amazing!
No wonder these seats cost several hundred dollars. All of the chairs were taken in the Box Section so I was standing up when I took the photo. Everyone had the same idea, I thought to myself.
No wonder these seats cost several hundred dollars. All of the chairs were taken in the Box Section so I was standing up when I took the photo. Everyone had the same idea, I thought to myself.
Here's the view from Box Seat O.
By this time, the opera was doing a soloist demonstration from a scene in The Barber of Seville. The host was interviewing a character in the opera called Figaro. He recounted several stories including the time when he decided that he'll be an opera singer. The opera singer sounded really down to earth. This gave me a behind the scenes of the opera. I really enjoyed it!
By this time, the opera was doing a soloist demonstration from a scene in The Barber of Seville. The host was interviewing a character in the opera called Figaro. He recounted several stories including the time when he decided that he'll be an opera singer. The opera singer sounded really down to earth. This gave me a behind the scenes of the opera. I really enjoyed it!
The photo below is the view from Box Seat T.
At this point, Figaro was already singing a scene in The Barber of Seville.
At this point, Figaro was already singing a scene in The Barber of Seville.
Here's the view from the side of Box Seat S from Box Seat T. Even thought I was there during an open house, I still felt special being there. It was like the first time Mijo and I sat in the VIP section of the Oracle Arena watching an NBA game.
The photo below is the view from Box Seat Y. Not a lot of people in this section so I was able to sit down. I must have stayed there for 15 minutes or longer. From Figaro, the character changed to Rosina. Aside from hearing the opera actress's introduction and Q&A, she also led us through a simple warm up exercise for the voice. I left just after Rosina and Figaro's beautiful duet.
Here the view of the Balcony (topmost), the grand tier dress circle, the box seats and the orchestra.
After I was done with checking out the orchestra and box seat sections, I was ready to see the rest of the open house. The photo below are mannequins showcasing the exquisite costumes used in the past opera performances. I am glad that the costumes were on spot light that day without competing for the same amount of attention from the actors and the performances.
These costumes were from The Merry Widow. Beautiful!
These costumes were from The Merry Widow. Beautiful!
These costumes were used in Tosca. They were on display in the opera house lobby. Extravagant!
The costumes below were used in Anna Bolena. Lavish!
These pictures were from past opera showcasing the imaginative costumes of the opera. There were costume and wig demos but I missed them all.
Jewelry is part of the costumes at the opera and they were also on display during the open house. Of course they were not real diamonds but they were truly exquisite upclose. Even with the most advanced binoculars, there is no way I would see or notice these jewelry this close during an opera performance.
There were also musical demonstrations happening around the opera cafe.
I just breezed through this combat worshop conducted by an opera fight director.
Here's a view of the Cityhall from the opera house outside balconies.
There was also an archives booth where they have photos and videos of past performances.
And I got a free souvenir CD by the San Francisco Opera.
What more can I ask for? A free event where I was able to deconstruct the opera, sang along the chorus, sat in the box seats, saw previews of The Barber of Seville and a free CD.
This Filipino feels truly blessed at the same time having a deeper appreciation of the opera.
Thank you San Francisco Opera!
(The open house took place on November 9, 2013 10:30am through 2:30pm).
~rl
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