#operacation

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Mounting an opera is a gigantic undertaking, there’re sets, props, music, actors, lighting, and thousands of details that take months to design and prepare. For this reason, a company will normally mount one opera at a time, and present it for a number of weeks. This is what makes the Ring Cycle such a special event. To mount and present four huge operas at the same time requires an enormous amount of resources. Today we’re hearing from a panel of behind-the-scenes production artists, and getting a small taste of what it takes to produce one of the most complex works of art ever created. #sfopera @sfopera #ringsf #ringcycle #thering #opera #operacation #oneringtorulethemall (at San Francisco Opera)

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Die Walkure is my favorite of the four Ring operas. It’s got the most recognizable music, plenty of action, but the best parts are the interaction between Wotan and Brunhilde, and Wotan’s character growth. His plan to get the Ring is in ruin, he has to accept that as long as he tries to possess the Ring he can never have it. @sfopera #sfopera #opera #ringsf #ringcycle #derringdesnibelungen #wotan #brunhilde #operacation (at San Francisco Opera)

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On tonight’s episode of Der Ring des Nibelungen: bound by his contract, Wotan is unable to go after the Ring himself, so he sires a mortal son with the hope that Siegmund will grow into a hero able to kill Fafner the giant, who has turned himself into a dragon (go figure). But plans go awry when Brunhilde, Wotan’s daughter and leader of the Valkyrie, gets involved. #sfopera @sfopera #ringsf #ringcycle #thering #oneringtorulethemall #opera #operacation (at San Francisco Opera)

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The orchestra for the Ring Cycle is massive - consisting of 89 instruments, that include horns and tubas Wagner designed specifically for the Ring, and 15 anvils, each tuned to a specific frequency to play Wotan’s descent into Nibelheim. #sfopera @sfopera #ringsf #ringcycle #opera #operacation (at San Francisco Opera)

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And so ends the first chapter of Der Ring Des Nibelungen. Wotan took the Ring from Alberich, only to give it up to Fafner the giant, and now he begins how multi-generational plan to win back his “precious”. @sfopera #sfopera #ringsf #ringcycle #opera #operacation #oneringtorulethemall (at San Francisco Opera)

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In Das Rheingold, the first of the four operas that make the Ring Cycle, Alberich, the nibelung dwarf, steals the Rheingold and uses it to forge a ring that will give him the power to rule the world. The next seventeen hours of opera, over the course of a week, we’ll witness the story of the Ring and everyone trying to possess it. #sfopera @sfopera #ringsf #ringcycle #oneringtorulethemall #operacation (at San Francisco Opera)

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Outside the opera house is a motorcycle named Brunhilda, and it’s a Valkyrie! #sfopera #ringsf #ringcycle #hondavalkyrie @sfopera #operacation (at San Francisco Opera)

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The modern beehive, invented by Reverend Lorenzo Langstroth in 1852, is based on the concept of “bee space” - that is, anything under 6mm a bee will fill with propolys, a kind of cement; and anything over 9mm she will fill with wax comb; anything in between a bee will leave open to walk through. The Langstroth hive also takes into consideration that the queen is bigger than the workers, so the lower boxes of the hive are separated from the upper boxes, called “supers”, by a “Queen excluder”. That way only the workers can enter the supers, so they will be filled with honey, but no larva. In the culinary herb garden at the Fairmont, San Francisco, they keep Langstroth hives for honey bees, as well as a habitat for solitary mason bees and other pollinators. @fairmonthotels @fairmontsanfrancisco #sanfrancisco #operacation #beehive #masonbees #honeybees