Culture at the Multiplex

Sound

THE NEWSPAPER HEADLINE caused a considerable local stir in the late 1960s: “World’s Largest Opera House to Be Built in Clairemont.” To be precise, on Clairemont Mesa Boulevard, just above Genesee Avenue——an area still expanding at the time. To think a little bedroom community was to play host to such a remarkable cultural complex! And the architect of the building was none other than the distinguished Sir Christopher Wren.

As a reporter for that newspaper, a now-defunct bi-weekly called The Sentinel, I took the first calls from a ladies’ committees being formed to support the new venture. I even took a call from a major New York architectural firm that wanted to get in touch with Sir Christopher.

“I’m afraid he died in 1723,” I told the voice on the phone. “Designed Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London. Would have been a major coup for San Diego.”

“You mean . . . ,” began the voice, now breaking into guffaws.

“Yes,” I said. “We still do April Fool’s Day stories at our paper. We had another one about a 40-story offshore hotel to be constructed at La Jolla Shores——the telephone’s been ringing off the hook.”

Few back then could have imagined this, but in the past two years alone, because of stunning advances in technology, San Diego is in fact host to the world’s largest house——the Metropolitan Opera in New York City——with outlets in Horton Plaza, Mission Valley Center and Mira Mesa. Wren is still needed, perhaps, to spruce up the architecture, but this doesn’t matter to the people lining up at 9 on a Saturday morning.

Come this March 22, they’ll be out there again for an opera that San Diego Opera general director Ian Campbell once told me he would absolutely never present here (too expensive, too long, too hard to cast): Richard Wagner’s supreme masterpiece, Tristan and Isolde, with tenor Ben Heppner and soprano Deborah Voigt (starting at 9:30 a.m. and lasting five hours, 35 minutes, with two intermissions). Before that will be a new Benjamin Britten production of the compelling tragedy Peter Grimes (March 15 at 9:30 a.m.). La Bohème and La Fille du Régiment arrive in theaters next month (April 5 and 26, respectively).

This is the second season of live Met broadcast relays to movie houses all around the globe. It began in December with Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette and continued with Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel and Verdi’s Macbeth.

Want to know what San Diego’s cultural glitterati look like without their tuxedos and fashionable gowns? These movie transmissions are a revelation. But how’s the show? At the AMC Mission Valley 20, things went off without a glitch in December, but Horton Plaza patrons were not so lucky. The equipment went on the fritz just as the broadcast began, and everyone was herded into a smaller theater down the corridor. Some people were turned away and had to accept refunds. They missed a thrilling performance by the soprano of the moment, the radiant Anna Netrebko as Juliette.

Opinions vary about the sound and picture quality. To my eyes, the picture is rarely bright enough. Projection onto a large screen produces some digital pixilation. The audio has always been excellent in Mission Valley, although the managers there have yet to figure out when to lower and raise the auditorium lights. Seniors stumble all over each other in the dark. And the 30-minute intermissions mean popcorn and candy for people who might prefer coffee or champagne.

Yet I am already an addict. I get my coffee at a java stand outside——and I intend to be there for every one of these exceptional transmissions. For more information, call 800-638-6737 or visit metoperafamily.org.

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