Klarinet Archive - Posting 000139.txt from 2006/10
From: "Lelia Loban" <lelialoban@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Mozart in Washington, DC (was: [kl] Dec. 7, 2006)
Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2006 11:56:30 -0400
klarinet@-----.org
Mozart in Washington, DC (was: [kl] Dec. 7, 2006)
Back in August, Dan Leeson announced,
>Next December 7, in Washington, DC, at the
>Library of Congress, there will be a performance
>of the Gran Partitta by the Orchestra of the Age
>of Enlightenment and with a 35 minutes introduction
>by me.
>
>And this time, the autograph in Mozart's hand WILL
>BE present. I have the LC's promise on that.
Advance tickets for this Thursday evening concert will become available on
October 25. The LoC's website offers more information:
http://www.loc.gov/concerts
According to the website and the schedule printed as an ad in The
Washington Post's Arts section on September 10 (p. N22), Dan Leeson's
introduction begins at 6:15 p.m., in the Whittall Pavilion. That room,
spelled Whitall in about half of the official LoC publications that mention
it (I never can remember which spelling is correct), has mysteriously
vanished from most of the LoC's maps and indexes, including the one linked
to the Library's "Concerts" website above, but it's right next to the
Coolidge Auditorium. They're both on the ground floor of the Jefferson
Building (the old building with the dome), near the only public entrance
(in the archway below the huge granite staircase to what used to be the
main entrance, now closed). If you're standing with your back to the
entrance, go down the hallway just to the left of the docents' information
booth. The LoC recommends arriving half an hour early, because of the
airport-style security screening checkpoint at the building entrance.
Leave the pocket knife at home.
Maybe the audience for the lecture will move over to the Coolidge for the
concert. That's unclear on the Library's published schedule. The schedule
says tickets aren't required, but also says they're available October 25.
I think the proper translation is that no tickets are required for the
lecture in the Whittall, but if the concert is in the Coolidge, tickets are
required for that. Concerts in the Coolidge generally begin at 8 p.m.. Is
there really this long a gap between presentation and concert? I asked
around in the Library as recently as last week, but couldn't find anybody
who knows. If anyone on Klarinet knows, please tell. (Dan?)
The Coolidge has 476 seats and reserves 80 of them for walk-ins at each
concert. Tickets are free of charge for walk-ins (first-come,
first-served). Oddly enough, it's not possible to get tickets in advance
*from* the Library for concerts held there. People who want to be sure of
particular seats by getting advance tickets can only obtain them through
Ticketmaster. The tickets themselves are free (limit of two per customer),
but Ticketmaster charges $2.75 plus $2.00 for handling per ticket ordered
on the web or over the telephone, and also charges $3.50 to print out
web-ordered tickets at home. (The $3.50 charge does not apply for
will-call or mail delivery.)
http://www.ticketmaster.com
202-379-7328 (Washington, DC)
703-573-7328 (northern Virginia)
301-808-8900 (Maryland)
410-547-7328 (Baltimore, Maryland)
1-800-551-7328 (toll-free from outside the Washington, D. C. local calling
area)
See the seating chart for the Coolidge linked to that LoC web page above.
For best acoustics, I prefer seats in the middle section, rows D-N. That
center section has consecutively-numbered seats, with the same series of
numbers, 101-113, in each row. Beyond the side aisles, the section that's
stage right/audience left has evenly-numbered seats, 2-14. The section
that's stage left/audience right has odd-numbered seats, 1-13. In both of
those sections, rows D-N are best and the lower-numbered seats (closer to
the center section) have better balanced acoustics. The slightly shorter
rows A and B (the first rows in the front) don't sound as good, but they're
better in the Coolidge than in most auditoriums.
The concerts are great bargains, attracting a well-mannered, knowledgable
audience, with the following exception: For this December concert, on the
ground floor, directly across First Street from the U. S. Capitol, avoid
rows S-U altogether, and avoid the two seats nearest each aisle (seats 1-4,
11-14, 101-102 and 112-113) in rows P-R. S is the last full row at the
back. T and U are short rows on the two side aisles only. Those seats,
near the lobby door at the rear of the hall, may be the duckpen then.
That's unlikely, but if the House or the Senate or both are still winding
up their lame duck sessions, and if the sessions start running late in the
evening and going Daffy or Donald, then to-ing and fro-ing may mildly
distract people sitting in that area, although the rest of the audience
probably won't notice. Off-topic, but I'll explain the duckpen to anyone
who asks me via private e-mail.
Lelia Loban
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