SFist Goes to the Opera: the Abduction from the Seraglio.

The San Francisco Opera went into hibernation, leaving opera addicts searching for their fix in the other companies, or in other cities. A charming option for the no-frill opera lover is the San Francisco Lyric Opera, whose Abduction from the Seraglio opened last Friday at the Florence Gould Theater, in the Legion of Honor. Mozart's opera, about a wife imprisoned in a pasha's harem, and the efforts of her lover to rescue her, is such a masterpiece it would sound good in any setting. Here, the theater is just adorable, a cute bonbonnièe with period furniture in the stairs leading to it and flowery frescos on the ceiling. Just like the theater, everything is scaled down yet very professional in this endeavor: the real orchestra, conducted by Barnaby Palmer, comprised of 13 instrumentists (just for reference, that is about half as many as there are violins in the orchestra of that other opera in civic center). The singers played their roles gamely, keeping the energy level up through-out the three acts and the two set changes.

While some of the singers sounded better than others, the leading roles impressed us. The tiny theater does not require the stronger pipes to fill a larger space, the same way we sound good singing in our bath tub. Nonetheless, these are accomplished artists. We'll give a special mention to the absolutely delightful soprano Anja Strauss, as Blondchen, former baritone Andrew Cox as Pedrillo, in his first role as a tenor, and Jimmy Kansau as Belmonte.

The crowd turned out much younger and hipper than the one at the war memorial opera house, due in part to the fact that children under 12 come in for free -- an excellent opportunity to expose your kids to opera and have a good time too. It also seems many couples took the opportunity of the performance to go to Land's End for a date. Indeed, as we walked back to our car, the view of the starry sky from the lawn of the Legion of Honor, the skyline of San Francisco shining on the horizon like a Christmas garland of lights, the Golden Gate Bridge blinking red as if giving us little winks, was as romantic as any of Mozart's tales of love.

SF Lyric Opera plays two more performances of the Abduction from the Seraglio:
Friday Dec. 16th and Saturday Dec. 17th, both at 7h30pm.
Tickets are $28, students $15, children under 12 free
For ticket info and direction, see here