Weekend Escape: San Francisco : The Opera House neighborhood is just the set in which to pursue life, libretto and happiness

Heading south on Sunday afternoon, 26,000 feet over San Luis Obispo and listening to Brahms trickling out of the airline headphones, I decided there is only one requirement for building a weekend trip around the San Francisco Opera: You have to be certifiably nuts about classical music.

You can’t get away from it, not if you spend your time hovering in the neighborhood around the opera house. It floats out of windows, seeps out of elevator ceilings, appears in live form suddenly in restaurants and stores, and on street corners.

It animates conversation in neighborhood bars and restaurants, where the guy at the next table may be carrying a violin case and the majestic-looking woman in the lounge might be a diva. It crowds everything else off the calendar.

And, at this time of year particularly, when the opera season is still fairly fresh, it’s a way of life in what is often called the Civic Center district of the city. There, within a radius of about four blocks, is contained not only the War Memorial Opera House but Davies Symphony Hall, the Herbst Theater, the Civic Auditorium and the headquarters of the San Francisco Ballet.

First, though, the absolute imperative: Get a ticket. The opera season in San Francisco this year runs through Dec. 11, and several of the performances are already sold out. The good news is that tickets now can be charged by phone (call 415-864-3330).

There can be bad news too. I wrote early and asked for a $45 seat for the Saturday night opening performance of Verdi’s “Il Trovatore.” A letter came back a few days later: Sorry, sold out. I called and asked for a similarly priced seat for the Friday performance of Verdi’s “Macbeth.” Sorry, said the friendly ticket person on the other end. The cheapest ticket was a side orchestra seat at $100. I took it, a little disappointed and a few bucks poorer.

Imperative No. 2: Book a room at the Inn at the Opera. This is not the only place to stay within walking distance of the opera house by any means, but if you want to feel thoroughly plugged in to the local musical universe, it is a quietly elegant clearinghouse. The staff has played host to such lights as Placido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti and many other operatic, symphonic and jazz heavyweights, and they can tell you exactly what’s on and who’s where on any particular night. They know music.

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I arrived at the Inn at the Opera late Friday morning after a 9 a.m. flight from John Wayne Airport in Orange County, and was struck once again at the near perfection of the location. The Inn is a small (48 rooms, seven stories) European-style hotel on the south side of Fulton Street just west of Franklin, which means it is almost directly behind the opera house. The walk to the opera house lobby takes all of two minutes. The canned music in the inn’s lobby is chamber music--Mozart, when I arrived--and my single room was beautifully decorated in light colors, with a white tile bathroom, a spacious armoire and a little basket filled with Braeburn apples. The clock radio on the end table was on when I walked in--tuned to the local classical station.

I went out and headed south for Hayes Street, two blocks away. In 1983 and ‘84, when I lived in the city and sang with the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, I spent part of nearly every Tuesday evening at Zellerbach rehearsal hall (it’s attached to Davies Symphony Hall) at the corner of Hayes and Franklin streets, and I often stopped after rehearsal for a glass of wine at the adjacent Hayes Street Grill. But I hadn’t known that Hayes Street, and a couple of the streets off it, are filled with little art galleries, bookstores and, mostly, small restaurants of all stripes, from Caribbean (one served a curried goat dish) to Russian (Mad Magda’s Russian Tea Room) to New York deli-style (Moishe’s Pippic).

For lunch I settled in at a cozy place on Gough Street called the Blue Muse and ordered the first of a series of wonderful meals: the somewhat fiery pasta jambalaya.

A hike seemed in order, but I didn’t get far. Just around the corner on Hayes is the Star Classics record, tape and compact disc store, and still more chamber music was wafting out of the door. At first I thought it was just a very good stereo system, but a sign outside indicated that it was one in a series of weekly Friday noontime recitals in one of the store’s side rooms. A pair of local violists were playing duets and trios with a pianist. All were dressed in formal concert wear.

After a short nap, it was dinner time, and I had reservations at the Inn at the Opera’s Act IV restaurant, a small, serene, deep-green-carpeted and dark-wood-paneled room that fills with before-and-after-opera diners. I was seated next to a couple who were going to the symphony that night and the opera the next, and we happily talked music, opera and good food. I ordered the chicken breast in Dijon sauce, which was nearly perfect.

Finally, the opera. Just mingling with the crowd--from black tie to Levi’s, and neither considered to be incorrectly dressed--was electrifying, particularly in the high-vaulted lobby among the champagne vendors. Downstairs, in a large tiled buffet area, salads and desserts were for sale. Upstairs on the mezzanine, patrons crammed the Opera Shop, snapping up compact discs, printed scores, librettos and T-shirts.

“Macbeth” was unfamiliar (to me), but enjoyable, and a couple of funny technical gaffes by the stage crew provided some good conversation fodder for later at Stars restaurant up Van Ness Avenue.

Stars--bustling, noisy, bright and expensive--appears to be a favorite of trendier opera and symphony fans. It serves food late after the opera (as do several other area restaurants such as Max’s Opera Cafe, also on Van Ness). I had one drink amid the din and fled back to the hotel and the Act IV bar and spent an enjoyable half an hour over a port listening to the bartender tell opera stories.

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Half of Saturday was spent tending to my take-home Italian deli needs in North Beach (the bus can get you there in 20 minutes for a buck) and devouring a plate of some of the best pasta I’ve had in the city at Caffe Delle Stelle in the opera neighborhood on Gough Street just south of Hayes. I considered attending a Q&A; presentation at the Herbst Theater with cellist Yo Yo Ma, who was appearing that night at Davies Hall, but I decided to stroll and enjoy the perfect weather instead.

That evening, while two friends were at Davies Hall listening to the San Francisco Symphony (Ma was the soloist, and the concert was a sellout), I sat in a deserted Ivy’s restaurant on Hayes and marveled at the ghost town atmosphere of the neighborhood during evening performances. Tim Hunt, the owner and an opera news clearinghouse in his own right, told me still more opera stories and said he’d heard that soprano Aprile Millo, who was to sing the lead in “Trovatore” that night and who was staying at the Inn at the Opera, had been replaced at the last minute by a local singer. It turned out to be true. And later, at dinner with my friends, Ivy’s venison was as tasty as Hunt’s source was accurate.

Budget for One

Air fare, O.C.-S.F.-L.A.: $90.50

Airport bus, S.F., round trip: $14.00

Cab fares: $12.00

Inn at the Opera, two nights: $324.80

Opera ticket: $103.00

Meals: $88.00

Bus fares: 2.00

Airport bus, L.A.-O.C.: $14.00

FINAL TAB: $648.30

Inn at the Opera, 333 Fulton St., San Francisco, Calif. 94102; tel. (800) 423-9610, fax (415) 861-0821.