Yosemite’s Bracebridge Dinner a night to remember

I had never heard of Yosemite National Park’s Bracebridge Dinner until I met Kathleen Roland, a fellow mom at my son’s preschool who is now a close friend. She is an opera singer, and for the last seven years she has sung at the dinner, bringing guests to tears with her rendition of “O Holy Night. ”

This year, as her guests, my family and I attended the holiday traditional, which began in 1927 and now runs on several dates in December. And what a night: part corny, part historical, wonderfully musical, very California and perfectly Christmas — inside the historic Ahwahnee Hotel.

Based on the conceit that diners are holiday guests of the Squire Bracebridge at his 17th century English manor house, each course of the four-hour meal is accompanied by song, as characters representing the squire and his household pray, argue, cook, and welcome their guests.

[Check out more photographs of the 2008 Bracebridge dinner.]

[Squire Bracebridge and the Minstrel. Photo courtesy of Lani Spicer / Andrea Fulton Productions and Kenny Karst / DNC Parks & Resorts at Yosemite Inc.]

Characters include the squire, his French wife, their child, the housekeeper, the chef and a Robin Hood-like character who brings a contingent of forest folk to pay homage to the lord of the manor. I could just imagine the 1920s-era rich folks of California gathering for this night of pageantry.

Before the meal, guests gather in the lounge of the Ahwahnee, a landmark that is the park’s fanciest lodging, singing carols around a grand piano. It’s formal dress, and along with tuxedos and long dresses, we saw men in kilts and women in period attire.

When it was time to go in to dinner, three players dressed as heralds stood at the front of the room and blew several blasts on long brass horns. A crier announced that the dining room was now open. We took our places, and the dark room soon swelled with music.

Like an opera, the plot really isn’t the point: the greatest moment of drama was when the housekeeper and the chef, played by Fulton and tenor Pedro Rodelas, respectively, argued in song over whether the meat course should be pork or beef.

But the voices were wonderful and the show was beautifully woven through the courses, so that it was easy to suspend disbelief and join the squire for the holiday meal. (You can get an idea of the music at CDBaby.)

The dinner started in 1927 as a publicity stunt for the newly opened Ahwahnee Hotel, now a much-prized part of California’s architectural history, with its massive fireplace, beamed ceilings and three-story dining room windows that on our trip looked out on big, fat flakes of falling snow.

[Photographer Ansel Adams, right, takes a break during an early Bracebridge Dinner. Photo courtesy of Kenny Karst / DNC Parks & Resorts at Yosemite Inc.]

Two year later, when the first producer died, photographer Ansel Adams, then a part-time resident of Yosemite Valley, took over as the show’s producer. He tweaked the program and developed the show and dinner essentially as they are today, although at the time all of the performers were men, and there were just over a half-dozen singers. Today, men and women perform, and the Bracebridge Chorale boasts 100 members.

Fulton, who runs the event, started out playing a small child under the tutelage of her own father, Eugene Fulton, who took over for Adams in 1934. The players are something of a family; this year, one couple celebrated their 50th year singing in the production — and their 50th wedding anniversary.

The dinner itself is more inspired by the plot rather than strictly adherent to it. For example, as players carried in a massive papier-mâché replica of a peacock pie for the squire’s approval, wait staff served delicate little chicken pies wrapped in filo dough.

As they carried in a reproduction of a steer’s hindquarters, wait staff served everybody two neat slices of filet mignon. My favorite part was the mulled wine and plum pudding.

The Bracebridge is notoriously difficult to get into. For years, tickets were handed out by lottery, though now there are eight performances and you can purchase your tickets.

It is riotously expensive, at $375 a head, plus upward of $400 per night for rooms at the Ahwahnee. You can opt for cheaper places, though. We stayed at the Yosemite Lodge ($200 a night), and unheated tent cabins are $45. Plan ahead, though, because it’s really popular. If it sounds good for next Christmas, book now.

— Sharon Bernstein, Los Angeles Times staff writer

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 30, 2008 at 11:28 am by Editor and is filed under California, National Parks, Winter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.