S.F. Opera's new season contains some cause for celebration

I subscribe to the SF Opera, and just got my season notification by E-mail. The first thing I noticed is that the usual "politically correct" modern premier is absent this year. Those operas please the SF crowd, but to my knowledge they are not the big revenue generators. So, the Opera has given great thought to producing maximum bang for the buck. It seems that the Opera is planning ahead for better times in the future. Rest assured that the 9-11 opera will NOT be a celebration of Bush!

It is possible to subscribe to a package that lines up several different operas on consecutive nights. So, if you are traveling from out of town, you can see a lot of operas by staying in the city for a couple of nights.

At the opera house, the cheap seats are acoustically good. So if you know music, and don't mind seeing the scenery from an odd angle (sometimes there are videos to help you), don't be afraid to get a cheap seat.

Years ago the SF Opera required an extra donation in order to secure a subscription. How times change.

As for this lineup --- Wagner.... ugh. Going safe, pupular and easy in hard times is a good thing for business, but must it always involve Wagner?

Coulrophobia wrote:

Years ago the SF Opera required an extra donation in order to secure a subscription. How times change.
As for this lineup --- Wagner.... ugh. Going safe, pupular and easy in hard times is a good thing for business, but must it always involve Wagner?

Well with the trouble economic times perhaps adding Verdi would keep the subscriptions alive.

But Wagner's masterpiece in "Tristan and Isolde" is perhaps a work that has yet been surpassed.