17 September 2016
The day started out cold and foggy in San Franciso but by noon, the fog dissipated and it started to warm up. September in San Francisco is usually hot, but my friend Wade, who is a longtime resident of the city, said this has been a long, cold, foggy summer.
Usually, when I’m in town, I buy either a three day or week MUNI pass which allows me on all city transit, including the cable cars and transfers. However, since my travels in the city will be mostly back and forth to the opera house, it was cheaper to buy a clipper card and put a few dollars on it. That’s one of main things I like about San Francisco – excellent public transportation.
Around noon, I grabbed the J line near the Parker House and got off at the Powell Street Station for a quick walk to Neiman Marcus at Union Square for lunch at the Rotunda with my friend Wade. I last saw him in Fort Lauderdale a few months ago and he kindly treated me to lunch at the Rotunda. We had a grand time talking old friends, trips, and such and before we knew it, we had spent about 2 1/2 hours at a prime window seat overlooking Union Square where they had a Korean Festival going on. NM, to their credit, didn’t try to rush us.
I rode the MUNI back to the Parker House and relaxed a little, had some wine and munchies at their wine social and then headed to the War Memorial for the night’s opera, André Chénier which was excellent! The opera is by Umberto Giordano and is not often performed anywhere. It was first performed in San Francisco in 1923 and has only been on the stage here 11 times in the entire history of the opera house. Four performers stood out: George Gagnidze as Carlo Gérard, Anna Pirozzi as Maddalena di Coigny, Yanghoon Lee as André Chénier, and J’Nai Bridges as Bersi. Gagnidze is from Tbilsi, Georgia; Pirrozi from Naples; Italy, Lee from Seoul, Korea; and Bridges from Lakewood, Washington so it was quite the international, star-studded cast.
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The opera is based on a real person (Chénier) during the French Revolution. The stage design was over the top along with period costuming. It was four acts with one intermission. The opera has its detractors but I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Today, I intend to do a little prepacking for tomorrow’s trip to Pt. Reyes National Seashore and then I have a 2 pm opera, Dream of the Red Chamber, based on a classic of Chinese literature and co-created by the San Francisco Opera for its world premier.
After leaving San Francisco, I have five nights of tent camping: two at Point Reyes where I have to backpack in to the site, one enroute to Crater Lake at Whiskeytown, CA and two at Crater Lake where the overnight temperature was 35F. Stay tuned!
