Many cities have grand opera, but only San Francisco has POCKET OPERA. These past 24 years, budget impresario Donald Pippin has staged in miniature over 75 productions - some classic warhorses, others bona fide rarities - usually in his own English translations, leading a chamber orchestra and narrating from his piano. To attend is to experience opera not as formal spectacle but as congenial musical theater. Stylishly sung by excellent local casts, the productions not only open up the often forbidding world of opera to newcomers, they afford die-hard aficionados a chance to hear unfamiliar works in English.

Enjoy 2 tickets to any performance of the 2009 season.