On Sunday, September 25, some 16,000 fans gathered at AT&T Park, home to World Series champions the San Francisco Giants, to watch and listen as an ice princess melted, bureaucrats blustered, and high notes were hit out of the park. Despite a gloomy weather forecast, those who took a chance were rewarded with a beautiful, mild San Francisco day, including sunshine and sailboats in the bay. For the Opera’s sixth annual ballpark simulcast, Puccini’s Turandot was transmitted live from the Opera House to the Ballpark across 2.5 miles of fiber optic cable. The relaxed venue lent itself to sharing the experience with others, as scores of tweets from the audience captured an afternoon at the ballpark with Puccini. [All photos from @SFOpera Twitter feed]

Through state-of-the-art technology, San Francisco Opera’s simulcast on September 25 will be transmitted in 1920x1080 high definition (HD) to AT&T Park's 103-feet wide Mitsubishi Electric Diamond Vision scoreboard—one of the highest quality outdoor scoreboards in the nation—live from the stage of the War Memorial Opera House. [Left: Members of our Media Team before a performance. Photo by Cory Weaver.]

 

Are you getting anxious for this year’s Opera at the Ballpark? We presented our first free simulcast at AT&T Park in 2007, and in the years since it has easily become one of the most beloved Bay Area traditions. Last year’s simulcast of Aida attracted an unprecedented crowd of 32,000 people—and that doesn’t count the nearly 3,000 more who were watching back at the Opera House!