Tuesday, July 04, 2017

War Memorial Opera House Seat Replacement Project

If you sit in the Balcony or Balcony Circle for performances by SF Opera or SF Ballet, you were the first beneficiaries of the ongoing seat replacement project. It started in the summer of 2015, and....since then, no seats have been replaced.

I did some digging around in the minutes of the War Memorial board of trustees (it is wonderful what you can find with a Google search) and also asked the communications group at the War Memorial about the future. As of now, it seems that the orchestra seat replacement will take place in 2021. The dress circle and grand tier might be done in 2021, or might be done sooner.

A general groan. I had already heard from SFO that the orchestra section is hardest to do, though I can't remember exactly why, but oh the seats there - they vary in width, and they are all much too low. The dress circle seats are an unpleasant squeeze.

The new seats in the upper reaches are amazingly comfortable. Nothing can provide more leg room, but my back did not yell at me after Meistersinger in 2015, and the proof is in the pudding.

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