scena

[calimac]

Someone else will have to tell me if this is a normal sight.

Never mind why I was there, but yesterday afternoon I was walking down Maiden Lane in San Francisco, an alleyway famous for being lined with high-end clothing stores, most of which were closed on a Sunday. I don't get to that part of the City very often.

As I reached the end of the block, I could see, and hear, across Grant Avenue, a woman standing in the middle of the street at the start of the next block of Maiden Lane, not where I'd expect to see a busker. She was wearing a red-and-white stage dress, and she was singing something that I'd never heard a busker perform, an opera aria. It was Puccini's "O mio babbino caro." She may have been accompanied by a boombox, but if so it was inaudible across the street, whereas she was not. I stopped to listen. After going through it what seemed like 3 or 4 times (it's a short aria), she stopped. Applause from across the street.

Comments

[wild-irises.livejournal.com]

I work not far from there at all, though I'm not usually there on the weekends. I've never seen (heard) this particular performer. But that kind of thing is reasonably common in Our Fair City.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

More of them might consider being among those out when symphony audiences are filing back to the BART station. Of course, that is usually rather late in the evening.

[wild-irises.livejournal.com]

I am the last person in the world who can judge the quality of a singing voice, but there's an African-American man who sings bass, who sings opera in the Montgomery Street BART some afternoons when I'm leaving work. I love his voice and always give him a dollar.

(The buskers in the Montgomery Street BART clearly have some kind of agreement; there are maybe 5-8 morning ones and somewhat fewer evening ones, but they clearly take turns and don't trespass on each other's hours. One morning group is a teenage (or maybe college-age) string quartet.)