Yes, that's me. I am getting ready to pull a huge float across the stage of the San Francisco Opera House which is topped by a devil tormenting a naked man and woman in a steaming pot of water in Hell. The tricky part is not running over any choristers or stiltwalkers who are happily enjoying themselves at a Kermesse Carnival in medieval Germany. According to Wikipedia, "Arguably the first kermesse was an annual parade to mark the events of 1370 (some sources say 1369) in Brussels, when all the Jewish population of the city were burnt alive after being accused of profaning a basket of communion hosts, which were said to have bled when stabbed."
From backstage, the second performance of the run last night sounded noticeably smoother and musically richer than the Gala Opening on Friday. The audience was also more enthusiastic and receptive than the often drunk socialites who help fund the company. I haven't seen the entire opera from the front of the house, but here are a couple of enthusiastic appraisals, by Janos Gereben and Richard Scheinen.
San Francisco Opera's free annual concert on Hippie Hill in Golden Gate Park was on the cusp of the fog belt all afternoon, but for most of the concert it was sunny and gorgeous.
Half the fun of the event is people watching, with the lady above winning most colorful outfit by a mile.
The woman above left was hosting a picnic at the front of the stage and confessed that she had arrived at the park at 9:30 AM for the 1:30 concert. "Where did you get your hat?" she asked me about my straw cowboy chapeau, and I told her, "The Rite Aid drugstore in Palm Springs." She countered with, "Mine is from Saks Fifth Avenue," to which one could only reply, "Of course it is."
Fellow supernumerary Kimberly Thompson was running around in an angel costume promoting the opera company and its season, stopping at one point to pose with a boa constrictor that happened to be hanging out on a pathway.
The pair of young lovers above seemed to have tuned out the entire world except for each other.
It was impossible to know what anybody was singing from the stage ahead of time unless you broke down and bought a San Francisco Chronicle Sunday newspaper for $2.00 from what we were calling The Extortion Booth above. Surprisingly few people did so, which meant we all relied on emcee David Gockley, SF Opera's General Director, for onstage announcements of who was singing what. It might be a good idea in the future for the opera company to print out programs for the audience themselves. A well-designed handout would help in marketing the season to newcomers, and those of us who have vowed never to buy the crappy Hearst Corporation Chronicle again in our lives would not be tempted into renouncing our vows.
One of the highlights of the afternoon was Susannah Biller above (with Gockley to the left) singing a high-flying aria from the Viennese operetta Die Fledermaus. She looked impossibly glamorous in her concert dress and almost made me forget how much I dislike Viennese operetta.
Curious about the mysterious America's Cup Muni Shuttle from Civic Center to the Marina Green, I jumped on a shockingly clean new bus with one other passenger on Saturday afternoon. The gentleman above had been trying to take public transit to the Opening Day races from El Cerrito, but once he arrived at the Civic Center BART station, there was no signage or anybody helping out with directions, and it took him 45 minutes to figure out that he needed to stand in front of the scuzzy Burger King at Grove, Larkin and Market to catch a shuttle.
We arrived at Bay and Fillmore and walked to the Marina Green just as the second of two races between New Zealand and the U.S. team had finished.
Though the Kiwis slaughtered the American team in both races, few people were looking very sad. In truth, most of San Francisco is rooting for New Zealand to win the Cup, partly because Larry Ellison has become such a ripe symbol of Silicon Valley capitalism at its greediest and most rapacious.
The scene at the Marina Green was unexpectedly entertaining and lively, though, with a practice scheduled after the two America's Cup races for an 18-foot catamaran race in the Marina Harbor on Sunday with close to two dozen boats in competition.
Besides the pleasure of nautical beefcake everywhere you looked...
...the carrying of these top-heavy boats down a loading dock and into the harbor...
...turned out to be enormous fun for the spectators.
There were strong wind gusts from the Pacific Ocean, and the practicing contestants were tipping over with abandon, and in some cases required towing assistance before they drifted into the nearby breakwater.
The America's Cup races resume on Tuesday (New Zealand 3, U.S. minus one thanks to cheating) in the early afternoon, and I would recommend the Marina Green site over Pier 27 because you can spread out, watch for free, and hang out with celebratory Kiwis.
