Good moves

My fiancé and I attended the SF Opera at the Ballpark event and absolutely loved it. It was a totally different experience from seeing an opera in a hall, and the audience reflected that. It was also different from seeing a video recording after the fact. There was something thrilling about knowing that it was live and that there were over a thousand well-dressed people in the hall experiencing the same music as we were at that very moment.

One of the marked differences in seeing the opera simulcast in the ballpark - at the end of the 2nd act, everyone whooped and cheered at Tosca's boldness. There's no way you'd hear an audience member shouting out the equivalent of "you go, girl" in an opera house. (And I, for one, certainly wouldn't want to.) But in a sporting arena, it's not only OK, it's appropriate.

Another very cool thing that happened - during some of the more romantic music, there were a number of white birds that flew around the screen, as if they had been choreographed.

The only drawback was that the audience as a whole seemed more rude than your standard baseball game audience, pushing and shoving to get past in an awfully crowded hallway.

Thanks for the great post!
- Rachel Rossos

1. SF OPera: More and more and more and more, various forms of digital transmission are becoming the norm for serious music,

As a card carrying member of the fringe, I'm with you whole heartedly. I know I've been a little slow to "get" what you've been talking about. Maybe it's my "leftish" dislike of the crassness modern day marketing.

Thanks. I tell my students that marketing doesn't have to be crass. Ideally it shows people who you are, and what you're doing -- as you yourself see it. It can be just as serious as serious art, and if seriousness is what someone's about, seriousness is what they should market.

The idea of opera or a symphony at the ball park seems very appealing. Who wouldn't want to listen to, say, a Prokovfiev piano concerto while munching on a hot dog and watching the boats go by McCovey Cove?

The venue will be familiar so a first-time listener wouldn't feel intimidated by the fancy crowd at the concert hall.

Makes sense.

I thought the correct term was Ringheads.....

I love this Idea,a great way to expose kids to music without it being to intimidating.