O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name; or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love and I’ll no longer be a Capulet
I’m here in Center Field.
Forget the Capulets…we are Giants!
San Francisco Opera partners with the San Francisco Giants for Opera at the Ballpark, a free live simulcast of Charles Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet (Roméo et Juliette) on Saturday, September 21, 2019 at 7:30 p.m. at Oracle Park. Opera lovers, baseball fans and tens of thousands from around the Bay Area will have the opportunity to experience Gounod’s lyric masterpiece at the home of the San Francisco Giants while seated on the baseball field or in the stands.
Registration is strongly advised and is now available at sfopera.com/simulcast.
Highly in demand at major opera houses around the world, tenor Bryan Hymel and soprano Nadine Sierra star as Romeo and Juliet. Full of romantic duets and soaring melodies, this French operatic adaptation of William Shakespeare’s beloved love story will be staged in a production by Opéra de Monte-Carlo Director Jean-Louis Grinda that depicts the Renaissance Verona setting. French-Canadian conductor Yves Abel leads a cast that also features Lucas Meachem as Mercutio, James Creswell as Friar Lawrence, Timothy Mix as Count Capulet, Daniel Montenegro as Tybalt, Philip Skinner as the Duke of Verona and Stephanie Lauricella as Stéphano.
The staging, originally a co-production by Opéra de Monte-Carlo and Genoa’s Teatro Carlo Felice, premiered in 2012 with sets designed by Eric Chevalier, costumes by Carola Volles and lighting by Roberto Venturi. Chorus Director Ian Robertson prepares the San Francisco Opera Chorus.
The simulcast will be transmitted in high definition live from the stage of the War Memorial Opera House to the new 71-foot high x 153-feet wide (2,160 pixel high x 4,672 pixel wide) Mitsubishi Electronic Diamond Vision Board at Oracle Park. The newly installed model is twice the resolution and 50 feet wider and 20 feet higher than the former video-board. It is the third largest video-board in Major League Baseball and the largest movie screen in San Francisco. Performance-quality audio combined with Oracle Park’s upgraded screen creates an enhanced open-air operatic experience for Bay Area audiences.
Initiated by the Company in 2006 to bring opera into the community and reach new audiences, San Francisco Opera’s free live simulcasts have been experienced by nearly 303,000 people of all ages. The September 21 simulcast of Romeo and Juliet marks the 16th free simulcast presented by San Francisco Opera and the 12th at Oracle Park. 2017’s Opera at the Ballpark performance of Mozart’s Don Giovanni drew an audience of more than 23,000.