Opera and Baseball
September 30th, 2007 by DavidY
Take me out to the opera
While growing up on Long Island, I enjoyed listening to NY Yankees games on the radio. Before each game, some guy would sing the national anthem. Over a decade later, after I had become a full-fledged opera fanatic, I found out that the “guy” was Metropolitan Opera star, Robert Merrill, himself a diehard Yankee fan.
Down here in Miami, Florida Grand Opera has supplied some talent for the Florida Marlins baseball team over the years. At one point, FGO could boast of a winning record when its singers opened the game.
As I write this, the New York Mets have just completed the most catastrophic decline in baseball, blowing a 7-game lead with 17 games left in the season. They displaced the 1951 Brooklyn Dodgers as the worst collapse in baseball. The stuff of baseball is operatic material for sure.
On the other side of the continent, where the San Francisco Giants entertained no such postseason aspirations, San Francisco Opera will broadcast a collapse of its own, Samson and Delilah, at the Giants’ stadium:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20070928/ap_tr_ge/travel_brief_ballpark_opera
I wonder if they’ll sell beer with those peanuts?
I love both sports and opera, especially baseball and basketball. Baseball is more verismo, slow moving, real time, with real people, and quiet. Basketball is like grand opera — a true spectacle, more entertainment than sport sometimes and LOUD! Opera companies would do well to promote their art at these venues, whether singing the National Anthem, or simply having a night out with opera fans! A great way to get recognition on the big scoreboards!