San Francisco Ballet: Box Seats!
A classmate of ours has seasons tickets to the San Francisco Ballet, but couldn't use them for the performance last Friday. It turned out to be a thoroughly special evening, because the tickets were box seats!
Here's the outside of the Opera House, where SF Ballet performs. Symphony Hall is across the street on one side, and City Hall across the street on another side. Lots of people were out on the street going to or from a performance, though just a few blocks away were people peeing on trash cans and lying across the sidewalk.
Arriving at the level of the box seats immediately brought me into a different mind space. The tone here was a lot more hushed, and everyone was dressed well. I liked these semicircular coves off of which the box doors opened.
A view across the box seats.
This really was like flying first class! So much more room, space to put your belongings. Note, we didn't take advantage of the coat hooks in the entry vestibule. There's actually a little entry room that's curtained off from this area, where there's a table to put your empty glasses. That's right, you can actually eat and drink in the box seats!
The performances themselves were okay: first an abstract "Trio," then Francesca da Rimini which told the story of a woman and a man in love, except the man was the brother of the woman's husband, and then Carnival of the Animals. I always feel at a ballet that I'm not "getting it," similar to how most people feel when they are in an art museum.
The memorable part of the evening for me was getting to sit in the box seats!
