For Sale

Remember the site that was auctioning off various props before the sale and demolition of San Francisco Opera's warehouse earlier this year?

At the moment - except that the auctions seem to have ended - they have a number of SFO productions on the block, for prices running up to $40,000. Only one of the old productions has sold, the lovely Michael Yeargan La Boheme last seen with Beczala and Gheorghiu a few years ago.

Also up for sale (or maybe not):

• Yeargan's famous Di Chirico-inspired Rigoletto
• Ponelle Cav & Pag from 1975
• Die Fledermaus from 1990
• Ponelle Gianni Schicchi, described as the remains of the production
• Samson & Dalilah from 1980
• Hockney's Magic Flute
• Yeargan/Bosquet Merry Widow
• Guillaume Tell, what's left of it
• Susannah, from 2014

Various catches: you have to arrange for transportation. These productions can take up a lot of room and are presumably expensive to transport. Read the fine print, as the production probably doesn't include costumes; for example, borrowed costumes were used for Susannah and they're obviously not part of this sale. You may have to provide various parts needed to put the productions on stage ("rakes").

Not a catch: these productions are mostly rather expensive, not impulse-buy material.

I'm a little shocked that Susannah is up for sale so soon, considering that it is new new new, but the sale contract includes "free rental to SFO" for the next decade. I hope it'll be back.

I'm so sorry to see that Yeargan Rigoletto leave town. It was first seen in the 90s with Swenson and Gavanelli, and I have loved it every time I've seen it. We can expect a new production next time SFO performs the opera, I suppose.