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Opera at the Baseball Park with friends and family: Mom, Dad Krizman & Carter say thumbs up
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Opera at the Ballpark offers amenities besides garlic fries for the writer and Carter Krizman
Opera at the Baseball Park means a celebration of friends and family, like my first evening with the Krizmans. The couple follow opera and have been married over fifty years. So, the Krizmans came at the invitation of their son Carter, pictured above in the pair of recliners placed at the Club Level at AT & T Park. Delighting the Krizmans and 25,000 other visitors at the home of the Giants on Saturday evening, world class opera singers hit notes out of the park. Voices probably projected all the way to Howard Street.
It felt like a good old fashioned drive-in even with Verdi’s tale of vengeance, Il Trovatore, on the screen. "Die Fledermaus would have been a good choice" said Dad, probably referring to the festive environment.
Friends and Family. That’s just where I sat for Il Trovatore along with Carter and his parents, Mom or Joan & Dad. It’s a new section for the simulcast at the club level, between the regular stands and the box level. We took a picture of Wendy and Prasanna in turn, who were good enough sports to share the chairs.
Mom & Dad's first Opera at the Baseball Park
It was my first time meeting the Krizmans, who had driven from Sacramento’s heat into the cooler evening by the Bay. They have two sons, Carter who came along and an older son Kent Krizman, a jumbo jet pilot out of San Francisco. Interestingly enough Kent did not brave the potential cold of AT & T Park when he saw everybody wearing jackets or sweaters. Big mistake, his parents would tell him later after a wonderful evening. By the end of the evening the rest of the family left the park happy and full of garlic fries and then some. Next year Dad says he will bring a cushion. Next year I will be bolder with my camera and get a picture of Mom & Dad waving an orange opera foam finger. We’re number one!
The evening started out with Carter saying he thought this was going to be like Stern Grove or Opera in the Park with live performers on stage. I said no it’s a simulcast and if it had live performers in a venue this huge the performers would probably need to have microphones. Mom said that would distort or ruin the quality of the voices the singers spend their lives developing.
Carter their younger son does appreciate the quality of the world around him. He commented on how the bells sounding from the ships blended in to the opera. Or how the opera simulcast could probably be heard for blocks away onto Howard Street. For some reason in the cooler air the seagulls were nowhere to be seen, no masts from passing sailboats either, just a majestic cruise ship lit up like a casino.
Dad and Carter re the big HD screen
Dad says the opera in the ballpark simulcast is far superior technologically to the Met simulcasts. The Met simulcasts have glitches, SF Opera and AT & T Park went smoothly. Carter expressed how excellent the HD quality looked and I agreed, things did look three dimensional. Carter likes having the subtitles right on the screen instead of having to look up.
Mom and Dad re the choice of opera
Dad also commented on the choice of opera to simulcast. He said Die Fledermaus would have been a good choice. I agreed. Maybe Abduction from the Seraglio. Mom had commented Il Trovatore has one of the most convoluted plots in all of opera.
I agree with Mom & Dad that with the ballpark or drive-in movie atmosphere the more raucous the production, the better suited it is to the attention span and venue. Moreover. One child even got under the ropes around the diamond during Il Trovatore. The child’s father had to chase the child down and when almost caught the child lay down on the ground like a hippie in a protest going limp when the police try to carry him away. The crowd appreciated the child’s spirit and applauded. I imagine it’s on Youtube via somebody’s camera phone.
Such shenanigans never could have happened at the opera house even on family days. It’s just this good sportsmanship, this All American spirit that I love about opera in the baseball park. Friends and family and beer and a run around the infield. Similarly when the Il Trovatore cast finished it’s spectacular tale of vengeance, they took their bows wearing baseball caps, while waving their Giants orange foam fingers or a baseball bat. Carter laughed and laughed, it was such a joy to see.
Ready for our close-up
I also loved the bigtime audience reaction inside the park, the feet stomping and cheering to the exponential degree you just don’t get inside an opera house. Sondra Radvanovsky as Leonora then continued with her song about “their prayers of death” and being scarcely able to breathe. The scene had started with a close-up of her hand clenched around the bars over a tower window on a dark night. Earlier I could see via close-ups the sweat on Leonora’s temple. I could make out the faces of my old time favorite choristers like Fred Matthews, Siggy Siegel and Bill Pickersgill.
Carter mingles with the VIPS, talks beer and Oktoberfest with conductor Cornelius Meister
Back to shenanigans and a sense of adventure and independence at the park. Carter promises surprises if nothing else, you never know what you will get into or who you will meet when with Carter. Little did I know he would soon have me interviewing a young new conductor from Heidelberg, one on one, pictured below.
Carter and I headed inside to check out the park and before I knew it Carter had located the VIP donor reception. Next thing you know the chairman of the fundraising department is at the rope and Carter is telling him I am press and I’m peeping “Examiner.com”. To my astonishment I am not escorted outside, to the contrary. In we go.
The first face I recognize is Adler Fellow Kenneth Kellogg, who listed all his covers and scheduled performances for the season including Salome.
Base baritone Andrea Silvestrelli loomed large and I had just seem him as a giant in the Ring Cycle in Seattle.
I also spied my old supervisor Eric Colby out of his tuxedo. He's the long time house manager. He's standing with Kelly Montevago, director of corporate giving.
Soon Carter identified Cornelius Meister, the young conductor making his US opera debut in Mozart’s The Abduction from the Seraglio. Carter pulled both the young German and myself outside onto the deck for a chat about Oktoberfest and why in Germany it’s in September.
Cornelius told us how Germany is from the 16th century and each little town has it’s own beer. When you go to that town you have that town’s beer. Carter pitched Anchor Steam as well as the wine country.
Carter asked him what he has gotten to do in California. I asked him if he liked the food and the German food in particular. He doesn’t eat the German food in California he said. For Labor Day he did get to hike from the Cliff House to the Golden Gate. Carter offered to show him around. Cornelius will have his wife in California from Heidelberg soon along with their two year old twin boys. She doesn’t sing as much these days.
Beer & Baroque Thursday October 29 at the BooM BooM Room
We ran into Michael Colbruno of Philharmonia Baroque, who just started Beer & Baroque. He almost called it Baroquetoberfest. It’s select PBO musicians appearing in local venues like Pyramid Ale brewery in Berkeley. The BooM BooM Room is at 1601 Fillmore at Geary. www.Philharmonia.org.
Carter and I made our way to the catering at the ballpark. We picked up beef on skewers; tiny Chinese take-out boxes with chicken; chop sticks which Carter used to conduct later; and two trays full of Anchor Steam in plastic bottles that looked just like glass. We headed back to Mom & Dad in the club section. They had garlic fries.
Photos: Cindy Warner and Carter Krizman
Ballpark photo by Pat Johnson, SF Opera
For more info: www.SFOpera.com, www.Philharmonia.org
Cornelius Meister makes opera debut in US with The Abduction from the Seraglio
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Leah Crocetto American idol of opera
Opera in the Park features drinking song from La Traviata, a tradition
SF Opera in the Baseball Park with Il Trovatore, September 19th
Juan Diego Florez to sing La Fille du Regiment in October
The Audtion broadcast from the Met
Met LIVE broadcasts begin October 10, 2009
Natalie Dessay's CD and Jeremy Galyon's debut, believing in the fairy tale
Natalie Dessay CD Part One, ladies do we still want the fairy tale?
Carter gives his regards to the last lady in line at the restroom . . .
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