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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2008-09-02 20:12
I took a tour in a major concert hall this past weekend, and the upper level seats are completely perpendicular to the stage.
To see the stage if you are sitting on the sides you have to turn your body, head to a 90 degree angle.
Is that typical at all?
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Author: vin
Date: 2008-09-02 20:37
I wouldn't say it's typical, but they have it that way in Boston, maybe that's where you were. I think it's typical in all the old halls that are credit-card proportioned rectangles... Vienna, the Koncerthaus in Berlin, the Concertgebouw (although I can't remember the upper level) and a few other not so old ones (Avery Fisher).
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Author: EEBaum
Date: 2008-09-02 21:10
Bizarre.
Slightly related: in pretty much the entire top level of the new Segerstrom in Orange County, though, you need a booster seat to see over the railing. They have a huge stack of them by the door.
-Alex
www.mostlydifferent.com
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2008-09-05 13:20
When the Kennedy Center's concert hall first opened in 1975 or 1976, the cheapest side balcony seats (on stage left, audience right of the stage) faced at right angles to the stage. Worse, the closest seats were obstructed view, with pillars in the way.
The acoustics up there weren't good, but they weren't good anywhere in that hall when it first opened. In fact, the worst acoustics in the house were in the most expensive, close-in Orchestra section seats, where the sound floated right over people's heads. The upper balcony seats shared two cause-and-effect advantages: the price and the audience attracted enough by the price to tolerate the conditions.
My husband and I, still paying off student loans at the time, bought season tickets up there in pigeon-heaven and heard some great concerts, though we didn't see them very well! The people sitting all around us seemed considerably better-informed about music than the glitterati down below. From overheard conversations, we could tell we were sitting in the midst of a lot of student, budding professional and amateur musicians.
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
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