Monday, September 08, 2014

Standees at Opening Night of SF Opera

Friday night I was at San Francisco Opera's opening night, where I saw Norma in downstairs standing room with friends. I got to the opera house at 8 in the morning & was surprised to find myself the 2nd in line for standing room tickets. Ahead of me was a cheerful patron who had driven up from Pacifica & arrived at 5:30am. Among other things, she told me the story of the opening night when ACT UP stormed the theater & she mistakenly maced baritone Timothy Noble, who was a cover for that evening's show & happened to be watching from standing room.

When the box office opened at 10am on the dot, there were hardly more than 20 people in line. I could have arrived at 9 & still gotten a ticket number in the single digits. Later on, veterans of standing room told me how much more competitive it used to be. When I was reunited with my fellow standees 9 hours later, someone commented that we all clean up good.

§ Norma
San Francisco Opera
Opening Night
Fri 09/5/14 8:00pm

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am sure it was a wonderful performance.
My mother was part of the SF Opera Standees for years and supported the Merola program.
Do the standees have a website? or email address? I would like to pass some informations over to them.

elsa tranter said...

happy to have shared that experience friday night (and saturday as well). no website for the OSA, but you can send a message to terrence!

Anonymous said...

Thank you Elsa.
I don't have Terrence's contact info.

Axel Feldheim said...

Anonymous: You can send me an email through this blog & I can put you in touch with the Opera Standees Assocation. There's an email link in my profile page.

Elsa: 2 nights in a row! You are much hardier than me. I am really curious about Susannah, as I've never heard it before.

Anonymous said...

Thank you Axel.

My email is kelticgrls@yahoo.com and my name is Marie.