Pedestrian life
Editor:
One more complaint about the decline in the quality of pedestrian life in Santa Monica:
Many of us moved to downtown Santa Monica because of its appeal as a cultural, pedestrian-friendly town. This is especially true for seniors and disabled people.
For years, we have been able to walk to the AMC 7 Theater on the 3rd St. Promenade at Arizona Avenue to enjoy the 6:30 p.m. Wednesday evening rebroadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera HD Live performances on Saturdays. The theater has always been packed with appreciative audiences for these performances. This year they unexpectedly discontinued their convenient showing of this popular series, which is a great disservice to the community.
I had especially been looking forward to the scheduled opening of Verdi’s Macbeth, which had received rave reviews. When I called the theater to verify the scheduled time, I was told that the AMC 7 Theater on the 3rd St. Promenade would no longer be offering this series. There was no one there in authority to listen to my complaint about the cancellation of this series in a convenient location. Instead I was told that the closest theater showing the series was the AMC Theater at the Century City Mall. Accordingly, I contacted the AMC Theater in Century City and reserved one of the two remaining seats for the performance.
The opera was magnificent, but getting there was hell. Although I left home an hour early, the express bus got me to the AMC Century City Theater almost an hour after curtain time.
When I checked the Wednesday evening schedule for the AMC 7 Theater on the Third St. Promenade in Santa Monica, I noticed that instead of offering the Metropolitan Opera HD series, two of its theaters were offering The Book of Life: one in 3D format at 10:20 p.m. and the other in regular format at 6:40 p.m.. Could they not for popular opera nights skip the 6:40 showing and offer the Metropolitan in HD at 6:30 p.m. instead?
There will be the same dilemma for upcoming operas in this series which neither the Met nor AMC does a good job of publicizing:
Wed. Oct. 22, 2014, 6:30 p.m. – Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro
Wed. Nov, 5, 2014, 6:30 p.m. – Bizet’s Carmen
Wed. Nov. 26, 2014, 6:30 p.m. – Rossini’s Barber of Seville
Wed. Dec. 17, 2014, 6:30 p.m. – Wagner’s Die Meistersinger
Wed. Jan. 17, 2015, 6:30 p.m. – Lehar’s The Merry Widow
Wed. Feb. 18, 2015, 6:30 p.m. – Tschaikovsky’s Iolanta/Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Castle
Wed. Mar. 14, 2015, 6:30 p.m. – Rossini’s Lady of the Lake
Wed. Apr. 25, 2015, 6:30 p.m. – Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana/Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci
As a great service to the community of Santa Monica, I am asking whether it will not be possible for the AMC 7 Theater on the 3rd St. Promenade to show the remaining operas in this season’s Metropolitan Opera HD Live series on the above listed dates.
Rhoda Newman
Santa Monica