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!
This year’s simulcast of Turandot is this Sunday, September 25 at 2 p.m. This will be the very first time we’ve held Opera at the Ballpark in daylight and we are very excited to take advantage of the gorgeous San Francisco weather we’ve been having as well as the impressive daytime capability of the HD screen at AT&T Park.
One of the other new things we will be doing this year is hosting free family activities for budding opera fans of all ages. Because of the earlier start time, we expect to have more families in attendance than ever before and will be offering a variety of fun activities such as face painting, art projects, singing, storytelling and appearances by Giants mascot Lou Seal! Head to the Coca-Cola Fan Lot and Scoreboard Plaza before and during the simulcast to check out the fun! [Above: 32,000 fans at Opera at the Ballpark 2010. Photo by Cory Weaver.]
Last but not least, let’s not forget one
of our other
Opera at the Ballpark traditions: our own take on the famous Seventh-inning Stretch. Including two intermissions,
Turandot clocks in at about 3 hours—the same length as your average baseball game—and our fans need a chance to get up and stretch their legs as well! During the first intermission, Misa Malone from Beach Blanket Babylon will lead the crowds in singing our own
special version of
Take Me Out to the Ball Game. If you want to get a head start practicing the words, we’re certainly not going to stop you!
Take me out to the opera.
Take me out with the crowd.
Buy me a seat at the Opera House.
I don’t care if it’s Mozart or Strauss.
For it’s root, root, root for the divas.
Bring your friend or your spouse,
for it’s “one, two, three cheers for you,”
at the Opera House!
[Above: Tammy Nelson from Beach Blanket Babylon sings Take Me Out to the Opera! Photo by Cory Weaver.]