Day 12,13, Sf Opera's Marriage of Figaro Simulcast at AT&T Park in SF, July 3

Day 12 - June 27, 2015

Spent some time adding 250 shots to Figaro and asked the Associate Stage Director, Morgan Robinson if she could have the gardener, Antonio move between Figaro and the Count during two musical systems (about 10 measures).  Right now Antonio is "buried" behind the supers and chorus so the cameras cannot see him.  We will see how it works on Monday our rehearsal day for the simulcast.

Day 13 - June 28,2015,

Sunday was our 2nd capture of Two Women and also an opera vision afternoon.  We had a good show and we will make a few changes for our final capture later this week.

Once in awhile I take BART into San Francisco.  This blog is about  my trip on my way back home and some unexpected reviews of my crews work.

Today was our second capture of Two Women  and as usual was our best capture to date.  The afternoon crowd loved the show, as all of the audiences have during our captures.  I suspect the other performances in between our captures are also popular with the audiences too.  I confirmed that as I was waiting in line at the Civc Center BART station waiting to go through the turnstiles as the Pride parade masses were jamming their way onto BART.  Next to me were two opera goers who I identified with a program in their arms.  I asked them what they thought of the opera and they gushed about it.  They said that they had been reading the critics and they thought that the critics were wrong and enjoyed every moment of the opera.  I wanted to ask them more questions but they, like me got lost in the sea of pink and rainbow people racing their way to the BART trains.  My opera adventure did not stop there.  

As I boarded my train, I encountered a young couple (early 40s) with programs and I asked them what they thought.  They both enjoyed it.  In fact, they went on to tell me that they were in the upper balcony and were so happy because they not only had great sound but they could see the close ups on the screens and said they loved all the angles and felt like the were watching a film.  They could watch the stage or go back to their screens.  Now without me giving away of who I was they kept going.  They told me that they design their 4 to 5 opera visits a year based on opera vision.  That's the way they saw Show Boat, Moby Dick (they DVR'd the PBS broadcast too) and many others.  They buy  4 tickets per opera and they also bring their 16 and 14 year old. They also mentioned the critics were negative but they couldn't understand it because "hey it's an Italian opera and it sounded like one!"   My stop was coming up and we said our goodbyes with them saying that I should tell someone at the opera how they felt.  I told them I will!

See you tomorrow,

Frank Z.