When it comes to obscurity, no city’s better known than San Jose. Got it?

I fell down a Twitter rabbit hole the other night reading a thread started by Nolan Gray, a city planner who lives in Southern California. He posed the question, “What’s the most obscure big city in America?” Had it been a joke, the punchline would have been “And why did you pick San Jose?”

Shockingly, the Twitterverse did not rise up as one and proclaim San Jose as the unanimous selection. People made arguments for Jacksonville, Charlotte, San Antonio and even San Diego as places that live in the shadows much more than the Capital of Silicon Valley. (And no, I don’t mean Palo Alto, smart aleck.)

Don’t they remember when stat-nerd site Fivethirtyeight crunched some numbers and declared San Jose the Most Forgettable Major American City in 2016? If you take our obscurity from us, what will we have left? But San Jose’s reign as the Rodney Dangerfield of cities was seriously challenged by people who didn’t even know we’re the 10th most populous city in the U. S.

“From a popular culture standpoint, Houston,” wrote user Mark R. Yzaguirre. “Huge city, but can you name many recent movies or TV shows that depict it?” The lack of pop culture settings was almost mentioned as a reason for Phoenix’s potential obscurity. And just five years ago, that would have covered San Jose, too. But now, it’s the setting of ABC’S “The Good Doctor” and Mayor Sam Liccardo showed up brief ly on HBO’S “Silicon Valley.” But wait — unlike San Jose, both Phoenix and Houston have teams in the NFL, MLB, and NBA. They’re depicted on a little TV show called “Monday Night Football.”

Indianapolis was described by one respondent as a “total mystery” but c’mon, it’s a state capital and it hosts one of the world’s most famous auto races. How much more do you need to know? San Jose, on the other hand, has an actual “mystery house” as its primary tourist attraction. Of course, we also have the San Jose Sharks and everybody’s new best friend, Zoom, is headquartered in downtown San Jose. ( Zoom being based in San Jose is a point against obscurity; nobody knowing that fact is a point for. The mind boggles.)

Then you had a group arguing that the Inland Empire — the giant suburban mess that swirls around Riverside — deserved the dubious honor. As many, many people pointed out, the Inland Empire’s not a city, but the nickname of an MSA ( Metropolitan Statistical Area, if you don’t speak planner). Still, the Southern California region had a legion of fans passionately defending the notion that nobody gave a damn about them.

Josh Kammerer argued for El Paso, as it’s “500 miles from anywhere.” Then without taking a digital breath, he threw in, “You San Jose people have major league sports and are part of ‘ The Bay Area’ and ‘ Silicon Valley.’ Get off it.”

We’d love to, but Chloe Meyere, who spent three years on the City of San Jose’s communications team, can attest that not everyone got that memo. In her Twitter response, she said reporters from outside the area would ask her, “How far are you from L. A. proper?” and “Costa Rica?” In my profession’s defense, nobody goes into journalism because of their strong map skills.

Gray, the thread’s originator, said all the “correct” answers — Charlotte, Columbus, Jacksonville, Fort Worth — were undergoing big population booms and would probably not be obscure in 25 years. But even he said, “San Jose is absolutely obscure. I guarantee you a third of Americans east of the Mississippi doesn’t even know it exists.”

To be honest, after reading all these tweets, we’re just fine with that.

OPERA BEHIND THE SCENES >> Opera San Jose premiered its new streamed show, “Three Decembers,” on Thursday night and kicked things off with a Zoom reception featuring Opera San Jose General Director Khori Dastoor, along with composer Jake Heggie and singers Susan Graham, Maya Kherani and Efraín Solís. Along with other members of the company and staff, they provided some real insight into the making of the show.

If you didn’t catch that, though, you can get some of the same insight by checking out “The Making of ‘ Three Decembers,’ ” a documentary available on Vimeo that shows just how Opera San Jose managed to become the first opera company in the U. S. to debut a new, fully staged work during the COVID-19 pandemic. Spoiler alert: It involves infrared particle scrubbers, a cast in a secluded “pod,” and miles of plexiglass.

You can watch the 15-minute documentary at vimeo.com/479958804. And after you’ve seen the effort that went on to produce the opera, you’ll probably want to see the show, which is sung in English with English, Spanish and Vietnamese subtitles available. It’s available through Dec. 31, and you can get tickets at operasj.org.

TENOR FOR THE TIMES >>

San Jose’s Italian-american tenor Pasquale Esposito has “Il Tempo,” his third PBS special premiering Monday on PBS, celebrating the 10th anniversary of his album of the same name. The show was recorded in January on the stage of the historic Teatro Politeama in his native Naples, Italy.

Espositio is backed by the Orchestra Talenti Napoletani, conducted by Maestro Ettore Gatta, as he sings his way through 150 years of music that most inf luenced his career and life, including the music of fellow Neapolitan Enrico Caruso and American tenor Mario Lanza. The show airs on KQED at 9:30 p. m. on Monday and will be rebroadcast on KQ ED+ (Ch. 54) on Saturday at 9 p. m.

BROADWAY BOUND >> One of the delights of Children’s Musical Theatre of San Jose’s annual gala is seeing the company’s alumni — many of whom are now professional actors — coming home to perform with tomorrow’s stars. But with the pandemic, CMT has switched up its plans and is holding a virtual benefit, “CMT: Home for the Holidays” on Saturday. “We’ll go coast to coast connecting with our alumni and local performers featured throughout San Jose, in their homes and more,” Managing Director Dana Zell said.

Tickets for the 6:30 p.m. show are $75 and can be purchased at cmtsj.org.