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Your guide to L.A. Opera’s outdoor screenings of ‘Il Postino’

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Los Angeles Opera will host outdoor screenings of ‘Il Postino’ on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at the California Plaza in downtown L.A. and Monday at 7 p.m. at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa.

To help organize your operatic outing, Culture Monster has put together a list of helpful tips and pointers. The screenings, which are free to the public and require no tickets for entry, are the company’s first effort at outdoor projected opera.

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‘Il Postino,’ starring Plácido Domingo, is a world premiere production that is inspired by the popular 1995 film of the same name. Composed by Daniel Catán, the Spanish-language opera is set in rural Italy and follows the friendship between exiled poet Pablo Neruda (Domingo) and his local mailman, played by tenor Charles Castronovo.

The screenings will feature a performance recorded Saturday afternoon at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. The opera has a running time of 2 hours and 50 minutes, which includes one 20-minute intermission. L.A. Opera said that English subtitles will be projected onto the bottom of the screen.

When to arrive

Organizers recommend arriving by 6:30 p.m. on Saturday at California Plaza in downtown L.A. in order to get the best view of the projection. For the Monday screening in Costa Mesa, arrival is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m.

Where to park

People can park in the California Plaza Garage, which can be accessed from Olive Street between 4th and 2nd streets. Parking should be $7.50 per car arriving after 6 p.m. For the Monday screening in Costa Mesa, visitors can park at the regular OCPAC structures, which cost $8 per vehicle. Alternately, you can park for free across the street at South Coast Plaza and walk across the pedestrian bridge.

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Food

Audiences can patronize the food vendors at California Plaza or they can bring their own food onto the property. For Costa Mesa, snacks and beverages will be available for purchase, or people can bring their own prepared food. Restrooms

California Plaza in downtown L.A. has restrooms immediately adjacent to the seating area that have served audiences as large as 5,500. For Costa Mesa, restrooms will be available in the adjacent Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall as they were for past outdoor OCPAC events, like Project Bandaloop and Summer Movie Mondays.

Seating

The space in California Plaza will provide seats but audiences may wish to bring cushions in case they find the chairs to be uncomfortable. Folding chairs are permitted only in certain areas. For Costa Mesa, seating is on a flat plaza so audiences should bring their own chairs, pillows and blankets.

Handicap access

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California Plaza is wheelchair accessible and special seating areas on the lower plaza are designated by signage or blue tape. The outdoor space at OCPAC is also accessible to wheelchairs.

-- David Ng

[Updated: an earlier version of this story said in one place that the screening in Orange County is Sunday. It is Monday.]

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