9/25/2010

A Treat of Aida

Last night, I headed to SF for a live simulcast of Aida in AT&T park. I hadn't looked at the map before heading out because I thought I knew where the stadium was - and I did, but it was a lot closer in my head. My confusion stemmed from having passed a street sign several times before that said AT&T Park with an arrow, leading me to believe it was close. I ended up walking an extra mile because of the twisty turns of the streets, and the fact that I was following the driving directions.



I started at the bus terminal (circled in pink), walked to point A to get some bottled juice, and then took the route in blue to get to point B (AT&T Park). I could have simply taken the route in green and shaved off a lot of time.


Luckily, the walk to and from the stadium was nice and I got a couple of nice shots. I followed the Embarcadero along the water and got gorgeous views of the sunset and the bridge at night.




I had brought all my things ready sit in the field, but I got there too late and the field reached capacity quite a ways before I managed to step inside >.< Surprisingly, there were very few restrictions on food and drink, so I brought along both and made my stomach happy.


The stadium was crazily packed. The announcers estimated 32,000 people showed up, with an extra 3,000 at the War Memorial Opera House. The lines to get in were ridiculous. I was sitting behind a group of people who seemed to be pretty knowledgeable about opera, so I got to hear some tidbits. I would have talked to them, like I did to the people waiting in line with me, but I felt I had nothing to offer them - no pearls of opera wisdom of my own.



The full scope of the line doesn't come through here. I was by myself, so I didn't want to step out of the line just to get a picture, and lose my spot.


This picture was taken after the opera ended, and lots of people had already left.

Aida was magnificent, and at the end I was so moved, I was holding back a few tears. Surprisingly, I was able to make out some of the Italian (from my Latin knowledge). Mostly, the words were so twisted from the singing it was difficult to tell.


After the opera let out, I rushed over to the bus terminal, and made it with a couple minutes to spare - good thing I didn't hang around too much. It was a great experience, though I did manage to lose my earphones >.<




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