Alex Ross writes about the Santa Fe Opera. He thinks he's being enticing, but he's not.
Mostly it's because he praises the open-to-the-outside amphitheater, which he compares to the Hollywood Bowl. I've been to the Hollywood Bowl. Once. My very strong reaction was "Done that; now I never have to come here again."
He also calls the Santa Fe Opera inexpensive; you can get a 5-opera season for $200. Maybe if you sign up far in advance, but the last time I was in Santa Fe, which was 12 years ago, I looked up the opera just out of curiosity, and found that for my dates I could have gotten tickets for La Boheme at about $100 a pop. This exceeded my desire to see La Boheme by about $100, so I didn't bother trying.
On the other hand, there's no fewer than 3 operas that San Francisco Opera is doing this season that interest me. But I'm terrified of getting a subscription because then they'll never stop badgering me to keep it. I go to one opera in a decade, which I did a couple years ago, and afterwards they kept phoning me until I forced them to stop. Maybe I'll get the livestream versions.
I took a look at the Santa Fe web site, and you can buy a subscription right now that covers a set of the remaining performances.
ReplyDeleteFor San Francisco, I have found the box office very accommodating. I would phone them and say that you would like a three-opera choose your own sub AND you also want to be on the no-call list. I get phone calls reminding me about start times and that's all. But they also never need to remind me to subscribe.