February & March 2012

February: Valentine's day, the Prix de Lausanne ballet competition, more Ramseyer art, and the Lion of Lucerne.

March: We traveled to the US. I took lots of photos with my mind's eye, but none with a camera. 

Some of our adventures in West Virginia can be seen here and here.

La Scala

We were lucky to get tickets to the ballet on Saturday evening at La Scala. Photographs were forbidden, so I
took this quick snap and put my camera away before many people had arrived. The theater at our level was only
four rows deep, and though we had to stand to see the entire stage, I thought we got great seats. On the bill: Balanchine's Jewels (short video).

What I found most interesting about this theater was that there were separate entrances for different classes
of tickets. The wealthy people who could afford €115 ($165) tickets for floor seats entered by the front door.
Those of us with cheaper tickets entered by a side door and used a completely separate staircase.

Hungarian State Opera House

We attended a performance of The Brothers Karamazov by the Eifman Ballet from St. Petersburg at the 

State Opera House on Saturday. Our box had seats for seven, but we had it to ourselves.

(November 2012 addition)

This post has gotten, by far, the most attention of any of the posts on this blog.  
Here are a few more photos from our evening in the Opera House.

Three chairs fit across the front of the box, two were on a platform (left side of photo), and two filled in the gaps, I suppose.

Our view of the stage and orchestra, when leaning onto the front rail.

Our view across the auditorium.
 

Prix de Lausanne

On Saturday, we attended the morning session at the Prix de Lausanne, an annual ballet competition. It seemed like half the competitors in the 15 and 16 year old bracket, and slightly less than half the audience, were from Japan. This is Kaname Uenishi, from Hiroshima, performing her classical variation from La Bayadere.